Lena woke up early the next morning, as she did every day. She trusted herself completely and trusted her weapons as well, so she had found it easy get a good night's sleep with a vampire tied up a few feet away. She was in that respect an old soldier used to the demands of battle; she had learned to sleep when she could and to rest while remaining alert to danger.

She got out her laptop and reviewed the list of things that had to be dealt with right away, including the installation of a secure wireless network in the house so she could take care of her business affairs. She had already contacted a local carrier, O2, and scheduled the installation for later that day.

For now she could check email on her iPhone. Most phone calls would wait until later. She checked her calendar—only one meeting for the morning, and that was here at the house at 10am. She had already called in a contracting firm to begin renovations immediately on the house and the hotel: a husband and wife team with Seraphin blood on both sides of the family. They had no exceptional powers except the ability to recognize supernatural beings, but that in itself would be very useful on this job.

Seraphin Nepos typically didn't marry within the species because the genetic risk of producing monsters had proven too great. In fact, there was an edict against it. Georgia and Bill Harriman had agreed not to have children in order to have the pleasure of spending their lives together. Lena had worked with them before and admired them personally and professionally.

The only phone call Lena made was to Tom, who was already at work at the hotel. Cleanup had been finished and the Barry Grand had reopened with a skeleton crew of employees. There were a few guests, either because they were oblivious to the fact that the hotel had been Hatch's home and the epicenter of the British Apocalypse, or because they were aware of it and curious.

She informed Tom that Bill Harriman would be at the hotel about 10am and asked him to escort the man through the premises. Tom was shaken at first because he thought she had hired a new manager, but Lena explained that she wanted to upgrade and modernize the hotel and that Harriman was simply the contractor she planned to use. As hotel manager, Tom would be onsite supervisor of the renovation and she wanted him to let her know what he thought of Harriman after their tour of the premises. Tom's ego was appropriately propped up by her explanation and he was happy to do as she asked.

Lena had returned to Honolulu Heights with the assumption that things would go as she had planned. After all, who was going to argue with her?

Unwilling to wake Hal from what appeared to be a deep and restful sleep, Lena did her best to occupy herself in the close quarters of their room. She did some quiet stretches to loosen up her muscles after the long day yesterday. She put her clothes away in the bureau of what she had decided would be her room. Finally Lena ran out of distractions and had only him to focus on. Hal was still sleeping like the dead; his curse was a thin pale pink shadow over his flesh, almost a blush rather than a separate entity. Apparently her presence was already working.

She sat quietly on a corner of her bed and studied her former lover's face. She had always enjoyed watching Henry sleep—he had looked young, undamaged by the life that he seldom mentioned but that had already begun etching delicate lines in his skin. So much pain, so much grief, so much death in his brief two decades: she had mourned his loss of innocence and delighted in making him as happy as she could. Human life is such a tenuous thing.

He was there, under the blush of someone else's blood. As long as his hazel eyes remained closed and his bow-shaped mouth remained shut, she could pretend that the creature in front of her was her Henry. As long as she could avoid the cold hunger of his stare and the twisted evil of his voice, she could give herself a reason not to draw her swords and send them both to hell. She felt the weight of shackles again and returned to the blackness of her own imprisonment as she pondered her future at Honolulu Heights.

Tears slid down her face. After four days of non-stop action, Lena had time for reflection. She didn't like the thoughts that flooded her mind: this curse is unbreakable; this monster knows how to kill me; this man has already ruined me. Fuck this, I have got to move! She decided to run down the hall for a quick shower while Hal slept. Georgia Harriman would be there soon and Lena wanted to get herself together before the meeting. Besides, it would be nice to shower without dealing with a blindfolded Hal and his attitude. She laid out her clean clothes, changed into a dressing gown, grabbed her toiletries kit, and slipped quietly out of the room.

She heard him raving incoherently as soon as she turned off the water. It sounded like he was tearing apart the bed and possibly himself with it. Lena threw on her dressing gown and tied it as she ran down the hall calling for Alex. She stopped in the doorway to their room, horrified to see Hal contorting himself against his restraints, eyes black and fangs out, the curse gleaming red and writhing across the surface of his body. The bed frame had broken into pieces.

She called the bola off him, afraid that he was breaking bones in his struggle. Alex appeared in the doorway as Hal leaped at Lena, intent on biting her, probably killing her, although drawing her blood would only be fatal to him. Lena unfurled her wings and flipped him back onto the bed with one flick, but he leapt at her again. She flung him back again in the hope that the shock of landing would wake him up or bring him to his senses, but it didn't work. Hal was acting like a madman. He leaped at her again.

"Alex! I can't hurt him, I can't hurt him!" Lena called out to the ghost for help. Alex grabbed Hal in mid-leap and they both disappeared. Lena heard his voice from the cellar and ran, nearly flew, down the stairs to the room at the base of the cellar stairs. Alex appeared in front of the sturdy door and slid the deadbolt a second before Hal's body hit it with a thud on the other side. Alex spun around, furious.

"What the fuck was that!"

"I'm sorry, Alex, I'm so sorry. I didn't know! I've never done this." Lena slumped against the wall. "For fuck's sake, I was only gone for 10 minutes!"

"Look, this is your mess, so I'll leave you to clean it up," Alex said, pointing toward the locked door. "But don't think I'll be there to save your arse every time you try something stupid, okay?" The ghost disappeared.

Hal pounded on the door, incoherent, yelling threats and obscenities. Lena wasn't sure he was entirely awake yet, but she could tell he was still being controlled by the curse. Unsure how to influence him without risking injury to him in the process, Lena simply stood against the door and pressed the length of her body against it. He sensed her immediately. The yelling quieted, then ceased. The pounding ended and she heard him shift his body to match her own through the door.

"My lady." The words were muffled by the sturdy door between them.

"Pet."

"Did you leave me?"

"I showered without you."

"Clearly that was a mistake," he replied. "I suggest you make sure it doesn't happen again."

"I agree. For now." She paused, then asked, "What happened?"

"I had a bad dream," he replied. It was more than a bad dream. Hal had shifted from the first peaceful sleep he had had in centuries into a nightmare of fire and pain. He was tied to a burning cross; an angel stood poised with a stake at his heart. As fire consumed his flesh the stake penetrated his chest. He was about to combust into flaming ash when the ropes disintegrated and he was free to attack the angel who threatened him.

Now that he was fully awake he realized that he had, in fact, attacked Lena, a move that could easily have gotten him killed. To say that he was upset was an understatement. Although his voice was carefully neutral in tone, Hal was livid at being tied up and abandoned by her; he was humiliated by her arrogant assumption of his subjugation; he was determined to get a little of his own back. After all, she wasn't allowed to hurt him and her ridiculously prudish attitude, which had led her to leave him in order to shower in private, needed a good shaking up. His mouth twisted in an evil grin as he considered his next move.

"Apparently your dream was a doozy," she said. "How are you now?"

"Awake. Come in and see for yourself."

As she unlocked and opened the door he moved back into the shadows of the room, avoiding the shafts of light from the opening door and from the grated window above him on the far wall. Lena hoped he was trying to give her room to enter, but she suspected that he was keeping her from seeing him clearly. She considered asking him to turn on the light, or at least to show her where the switch was, but decided that he would take it as a sign of weakness on her part.

Her spidey sense was tingling; there was no threat of violence, but something wasn't quite right with him. She could see a glimmer of red surrounding him as she approached, turning the bola into a noose in her hands once more as she did.

Hal stood quietly, apparently unwilling to protest as she lifted the noose over his head and dropped it around his neck. When both of her arms were extended he suddenly grabbed the front of her dressing gown and yanked it open to expose her naked breasts. Before the fabric stopped moving he had pulled her to him in a full-body hug and deeply invasive kiss. He bore down on her with one arm firmly around her back as his other hand cupped her butt and forced her against him so she had the full effect of the growing bulge in his shorts.

Lena froze for a moment as the feel of his skin against her own took her back 500 years to a time when she had welcomed his aggressive approach and matched it with her own. The feeling was quickly overcome by her disgust and outrage at the vampire's behavior. This beast wasn't her Henry, it was another species altogether. With a growl she shoved him off of her and punched him in the mouth hard enough to throw him backward several feet into the wall.

She quickly closed up her dressing gown as the thought flashed through her mind that a messenger from the creator could materialize at any moment after the right hook she just landed, which clearly broke the edict against hurting Hal. At the least she expected her dad to pop in with a comment on her technique and the suggestion that a straight right would have worked just as well.

When nothing supernatural occurred other than Hal's ability to remain conscious after that punch, Lena figured she was being given a little leeway to handle her current situation. She yanked on the bola and tightened the noose around his neck as he struggled to his feet, spitting blood and laughing. He wiped his hand on his mouth to catch the blood that was starting to run from one corner, and sucked it off his fingers.

"Waste not, want not," he said with a grin.

As she half-dragged him out the door of the cellar room he continued, "I thought you weren't supposed to hurt me. Should we be expecting a lightning bolt from heaven?"

"Apparently I got a pass on this one," she responded as she grabbed his hands and tied his wrists together. "I guess heaven agrees that you deserved it."

He gave her a wicked smile as he met her eyes. "It was worth it."

Alex popped her head through the open door to the cellar steps, interrupting them and saving Hal from another punch in the face. "Someone's at the door."

"Is it 10 already? Shit, Alex, it's the contractor I hired for the renovation. Her name's Georgia Harriman. Can you let her in?" Lena barely looked away from Hal as she spoke.

"Of course I can let her in," Alex replied sarcastically, "because an invisible 'welcome to our house, come on in' works spectacularly." She paused for Lena's reply, but when she realized that the conversation was over she huffed away to open the door.

As soon as Alex was gone Hal continued speaking. "I know you enjoyed it too, my lady. I can tell by the beating of your heart."

"You mistake anger for attraction," she replied as she pointed him up the stairs ahead of her. "That probably happens to you all the time."

He nearly brushed up against her as he moved past, inhaling deeply as he did. "Say what you like," he spoke over his shoulder as they went up the stairs to the main floor, "but I detect the faint scent of arousal."

"All right Hal, I admit it. Punching you in the face turns me on," Lena responded as they stepped into the hallway to see Alex and an attractive, middle-aged professionally dressed woman gaping at them.

Georgia Harriman had worked with Lena Perennis on two other properties in the UK. She knew her to be a forceful, determined, decisive woman as well as a Seraphin Nepos of great power. She had never seen her in quite this way, however. As much as she tried, Georgia couldn't keep a straight face while she took in Lena in a damp silk dressing gown with her hair a wet mop on her head, leading a gorgeous, nearly-naked bleeding vampire with a noose around his neck. She opened her mouth to speak, but only managed a cough. She tried again and got out two words and a punctuation mark.

"Role playing?"

"Sadly, no," Hal answered suavely. "We've had a falling out."

"You have my sympathies," Georgia said to Hal.

"You do know he's a vampire," Lena interrupted.

"Still." Georgia looked at Lena and smiled slightly. "Am I early?"

"No, we just got sidetracked," Lena replied. "Alex, would you mind getting Georgia a cup of tea or something while we get dressed?" She didn't attempt to explain what was going on or bother to look embarrassed. Lena had long ago reached the point in her life where she truly didn't give a rat's ass about appearances. Hal, on the other hand, was infuriated to be paraded in front of Lena's business associate in this fashion. He didn't show it, but his curse throbbed with fury and gave him away.

Alex was thrilled to take Georgia into the kitchen for a cup of tea. Alex was thrilled that Georgia had responded to her when she threw open the door and announced, "Welcome to our crazy abode! Come right in!" Alex was thrilled at the thought that the Honolulu Heights renovation meant contact with people who could actually see her and talk to her. She escorted Georgia into the kitchen while questioning her about the number of Seraphin Nepos she had working on her crew, and were any of them male, good-looking, and single.

Lena directed Hal to the room they had shared the previous night, where he studied the bed he had destroyed while she dressed. Lena turned three-quarters away from Hal and held his leash in her teeth while pulling on her underpants and dark-wash jeans under the dressing gown. She tucked the metal shots of the bola into a jeans pocket, dropped her dressing gown and quickly put on her bra and a sapphire blue t-shirt. Finally she stuck flat shoes on her feet and grabbed a comb from the dressing table.

"Your turn," she said. She looked at the bed. "We'll deal with that mess later."

They went to Hal's room where he dressed while she combed her hair. She untied his hands so he could dress and left the leash tucked into a pocket of her jeans in order to have both hands free to work on her hair. She could see the vampire curse getting thin and pale as she continued her proximity to Hal and moved with him as needed in order for him to reach his clothes and shoes.

Once fully dressed he turned to her, rubbing his jaw ruefully. "You pack a punch."

"You got off easy, Pet. The last guy who tried that move on me sang soprano for the rest of his life." Her eyes narrowed as she saw him look intently up and down her body. "Which lasted about 5 minutes." There was clearly a threat in her voice.

"I'll keep that in mind, but I think we both know that threat doesn't pertain to me. Besides, it only seems fair, my lady, that our proximity to each other should benefit us both."

"I don't give a fart in hell what you think is fair," she replied as she retied his wrists and tossed her comb on his bed. She noticed his slight wince but wasn't sure if it was because of her language or because his need for order was beginning to reassert itself. She continued. "I'd be happy to truss you up again and put a gag in your mouth as well, if that's what it takes for you to back off."

They moved in tandem toward the stairs, she with the end of his leash in one hand, he taking the lead because he knew she would insist on it. "Perhaps it is in my best interests to call a truce for now," he said over his shoulder as they entered the kitchen. "I will agree to make no more sexual advances toward you if you will agree to refrain from approaching me in a similar manner."

Georgia and Alex looked up from the table where they were deep in conversation. Lena knew that Hal was playing to the crowd and trying to upset her in front of other people. She didn't rise to the bait.

"Well, as I said last night, I'll do my best to keep an appropriate distance between us," she said dryly, before turning to shake Georgia's hand.

"It's good to see you again. Has Alex been keeping you entertained?"

"Very much so," Georgia replied. "I've had a quick survey of the downstairs and am ready for a look upstairs if you don't mind."

"Help yourself," Lena said. "I'm going to find some breakfast before we meet and talk. There has to be something to eat in this place."

Alex escorted Georgia upstairs for a tour of the house, which included Lena's bedroom and a quick perusal of Hal's broken bed. "It takes a lot to do that," Georgia said. "That Hal, he's dangerous isn't he?"

"Yeah," Alex replied. "I don't think Tom and I knew how dangerous he could be until we saw it for ourselves. I reckon if Lena can't help him get over the blood, we'll have to stake him."

Georgia was taken aback by Alex's matter-of-fact tone and manner. She and Bill had never dealt with supernatural beings other than fellow Seraphin Nepos and the occasional ghost. She felt like she had entered a bizarre sub-world that she had formerly assiduously avoided, and she wasn't entirely happy about it.

They completed the tour to find Lena and Hal eating breakfast. They had somehow managed to work together to fix the meal for them both. Alex got Lena's briefcase from the Audi and the group shifted from the kitchen to the dining table so Lena could spread out the original blueprints and other documents of previous structural and design changes the house had undergone.

Once she got Georgia settled, Lena and Hal returned to the kitchen to do the washing up. As she watched him don his marigolds Lena knew that her presence had finally settled him down and she decided not to tie his hands together again after they had finished. She also allowed him to direct their activities, as this was clearly his domain and their breakfast preparations had gone much more smoothly once she had given him the command position.

Lena had spent a good part of her life battling the slave trade. The notion that she could act like a slave owner and treat anyone, even a vampire, like a slave turned her stomach. She was certain that Hal was dangerous and needed to be contained, and in truth there were much more ruthless ways to do it than the one she had chosen. Once again Lena found herself walking the thin line between appropriate caution and vindictive power.

They spent the rest of the morning planning and in the end Lena was ready to move ahead with several projects immediately. First priority for Georgia's crew would be to turn the small bedroom next to Lena's into a bathroom. Georgia recommended an en suite but Lena declined in favor of her agreement with Hal that he would also have access to it. The decision was in some ways symbolic of her hope that they could eventually come to terms with co-habitation.

Georgia's crew would also construct a laundry alcove on the first floor next to the kitchen and add a dishwasher in the kitchen itself. She thought it best to consider all plumbing-related projects at once, thereby streamlining the processes involved.

Second priority was a dance studio, and for that project Georgia recommended two small rooms on the back side of the house, at the other end of the main hallway from Hal and Lena's rooms. A study of the original house plans showed that the two rooms had actually begun as one large room, so tearing out the dividing wall would pose no risk to the structural integrity of the house. Lena decided that the dance studio would be her project; after all, she couldn't just sit around and watch a vampire sip tea all day. She'd rather have him work alongside her and keep them both busy.

Before anything could happen the house needed to be emptied of some of the accumulated stuff that was stockpiled in empty rooms and unused corners. Hal recommended Cancer Research Wales as a good place to send donations; it was a favorite of Tom's, as apparently he bought most of his clothes from the organization's shops. Georgia would arrange for a crew and trucks to do a haul-away tomorrow, giving the housemates the night to look things over and decide what, if anything, they wanted to keep from the stockpile.

Lena approved the plan with only one stipulation regarding crews coming and going at Honolulu Heights. "I want as many supernaturals on the job as possible, for two reasons," she told Georgia. "It will be easier for Hal to be around as few humans as possible, and I want Alex to be recognized and respected as a member of this household." At the ghost's surprised look, she continued. "This is your home, Alex. You have a say in what happens here. The work crews need to be able to communicate with you until you learn to make yourself visible to humans in general."

"Can I do that?" Alex was taken aback by the thought. As far as she knew, it was impossible.

"Of course you can," Lena replied. "I've known ghosts who became completely tangible to the human world. It just takes practice and patience to build up your strength."

"Really? How come nobody told me that?" she looked pointedly at Hal.

"I've never met a ghost who could become tangible," he replied. "I've met a few who could make themselves barely visible or audible to humans for a limited time, but it takes a great deal of effort."

They all looked to Lena for an explanation.

"Look Alex, you can do you decide to do at this point. Your mortal parts are gone and your supernatural parts aren't limited by a physical body." Lena tried to explain the concept of faith, and belief in oneself, as best she could. "Look at me. Do I look like a supernatural demon slayer with a 12-foot wingspan? Do I appear to be covered in armor and weapons? No. But when I need those things, they are all there for me. I simply believe that they are, and they appear. I have faith in those parts of myself that are immortal, or supernatural, or spiritual. They exist. I believe in them and they exist."

"I guess it makes sense in a way," Hal said. "Annie was very powerful when she forgot herself and did what she believed she had to do." He turned to Georgia. "Annie was a ghost of our acquaintance and the former matriarch of our household. She blew up the vampire Old Ones and prevented their war against humanity."

Georgia spun her head to stare, aghast, at Lena for confirmation of Hal's seemingly ludicrous statement.

"It's true, Georgia," Lena replied. "There's a lot about our world that most Seraphin Nepos don't know."

Georgia swallowed heavily. "I think I'd prefer to keep it that way, if you don't mind," she said shakily. Just then there was a knock at the door. "Bill!" Georgia called his name with obvious relief.

"I'll get it." Alex popped over to the door and brought in Bill Harriman, who was finished with his survey of the hotel and was ready to pick up his wife and return to London. Lena met him with a handshake and introduced Hal, who once again handled an awkward situation with aplomb. He asked Harriman a few excellent questions about the state of things at the Barry Grand and generally gave the impression that he was in charge of the household and hotel, even while being kept on leash like an animal. Lena once again noted Hal's behavior as evidence of both his strength of character and his potential for danger.

After the Harrimans departed the afternoon was spent in what could almost be considered quiet domesticity. They cleaned up the broken bed and moved Hal's bed from his room next door into their shared room; they cleaned the kitchen and bathroom; they did a kitchen inventory and grocery list for Tom; they began the process of deciding what to remove from the house.

Alex worked alongside Lena and Hal throughout the day, and she was happier than Hal had seen her since before her death. He supposed it was because she had been able to take part in the business of the day and had hopes of meeting other people who could communicate with her. Hal had to give Lena credit—she was being surprisingly considerate of Alex, and of him too, all things considered. She had left his hands untied all afternoon and had worked to maintain the delicate balance between effective proximity and too close for comfort in terms of personal space.

Hal could feel Lena's calming, stabilizing effect on him increase as the day wore on. His bloodlust diminished to the point that he could almost relax when humans walked past the house. He realized that Lena was ever watchful of him, and at first he believed she was waiting for his next assault or escape attempt, but he became aware that she was simply making sure he was okay.

She had first asked him "What do you need?" while they were preparing breakfast; she asked it repeatedly during the day, quietly, when she saw him hesitate or look concerned or confused.

At first Hal had responded, "Not a thing, thank you," thinking that Lena was being polite or cautious. Eventually it occurred to him that 'polite' and 'cautious' were not character traits that anyone with any sense would attribute to her. The next time she asked the question, he gave an honest response.

"I need to stay away from windows on the front of the house," he said. "For now, at least."

"Of course. Take the lead if you need to. I'll follow." And she did.

They had tea ready when Tom got home from work full of stories about that Mr. Harriman bloke and their plans for the hotel. They caught up on the Harrimans and the renovation plans during a meal that Hal enjoyed immensely, even though it was simple fare. With his bloodlust diminished he was able to appreciate the taste of food for the first time in centuries, and with that new knowledge in mind he added some items to the grocery list. A man with his refined tastes could only tolerate so many bacon sarnies.

Lena handed Tom the grocery list and a fistful of money to pay for it, telling him to pick up whatever he wanted that they may have forgotten to put on the list. Alex accompanied Tom so she could rent-a-ghost around the store and make things disappear from shelves and reappear in their shopping cart.

They had been gone about five minutes when the two technicians from O2 appeared to install business-grade internet service in Honolulu Heights. Lena met them at the door and quickly pointed out the current service line that she wanted replaced as part of the installation. While she spoke to them Hal stood just around the corner near the coat rack and tried to ignore the double tattoo of their heartbeats.

When the technicians had left the doorway to begin the job Lena explained to Hal what was happening and that it would involve at least one of them entering the house for a brief period. She and Hal decided that the window facing the street was less of a challenge than the presence of the workmen at the back of the house, so they sat on the sofa near the front of the house during the installation.

She had pulled a book off the shelf and they took turns reading passages from Sir Walter Scott's Kenilworth. They stopped occasionally to chuckle at its historical inaccuracies. When the technician came inside to set up the service hub on a small table in the corner of the dining room, she removed the bola from Hal and instead slid her arm through the crook of his elbow to keep them linked until the technician left. They both recognized that her touch calmed him; he didn't realize that she was working to block the tentacles of his curse, which continuously tried to dig into her with prolonged contact.

When it was over and the technicians were gone Hal looked at Lena. "Thank you. For being considerate enough of my feelings not to parade me in front of strangers like a…" he swallowed, unable to find any word that he was willing to speak aloud.

"It saved us both some strange looks," she replied lightly as she placed the bola loosely around his neck. At his frown she explained, "I don't trust you yet, Pet. Besides, I use it as a guide, to know how far away from you I can be without causing trouble."

He sighed but didn't protest. Her explanation made sense. He continued his turn at reading, as she hadn't suggested any other course of action. For Hal it was a pleasant distraction; for Lena it was a gentle reminder of times past, when they had worked together to teach him the Slavic language of the region. He had barely spoken it when they met and some of the first words he had asked her about were insults he had been called. He had been a quick study.

They were still reading when Tom and Alex came home loaded down with groceries. Tom had taken clear advantage of Lena's offer to pick up whatever he wanted, but Hal's requests had also been met. It took some doing to get everything stored away but Hal's organizational skills were up to the challenge and eventually the kitchen was tidy again.