Author note: I love music. It always puts me into a writing mood until a great one comes on and I stop to listen to it and sing along and get totally distracted… I type as I listen to a song by dead by sunrise… Heh… Heh. At least I'm a woman who knows her distraction and admits to it right?

Clocksworkapprentice: Thanks! It's nice to know you still like it this far. I hope you keep doing so!

Maiannaise: Love the avatar change. And haha you shall see! I just love throwing random little things to torment my characters you know... hope you like!

Germandelights: You need to recharge that perv machine of yours? ha! I thought it had an endless supply! Aw, you're defending the story. *huggle attack* you'll be happy to know a certain two shot you're waiting on is near complete. I'm editing it. Debbie- downer? Love it. Hope you keep liking this!

Kaih and guest: Thank you very much for participating! I hope you both like the results.

Damemond: Hey, I think I just saw that avatar! Hahaa, not in a stalker move I swear. I'm glad you reviewed two stories. That makes me feel accomplished! I hope you keep liking these humble writings. Thanks for participating in this one too.

This chapter might be confusing but remember we are going into Nettie's past please. So don't think of her as "Nettie" when the italics show up.

THE RESULTS!

Choice A- 1

Choice B- 5... landslide yaaay.

Disclaimer: Nope.

Chapter start

"I was hoping you'd choose something other than me or Dimitri," Redolphus sighed. "Come closer and kneel before me."

Nettie hesitated long moments before doing as she was told. She flinched when Redolphus pressed his fingers against her forehead. He was so cold! Like… death.

She suppressed a shudder barely and closed her eyes. All of a sudden she was feeling like she was drowning. Her eyes snapped open and she saw only black darkness. Fear ran up her limbs like ice and she felt her heart pound.

And perhaps most frightening… the connection to Dimitri was gone! She couldn't feel it and believe she was digging through her being for it, trying to send her signal for help to him.

Then with sudden finality she saw a light glowing under feet. Nettie shrieked as she slipped through it and tumbled through the air. Down and down she spiraled. She realized she was falling on top of someone. She had a distinct impression of black messy hair and glasses as he glanced up, icy blue eyes behind the frames. Then she slammed into him.

But there was no crash, no tangled limbs. There wasn't any cursing words or need to explain why the heck she was falling from the sky. She wasn't there anymore.

Nathan frowned deeply as he studied the sky. How odd… he could have sworn he had heard a shriek… no matter he supposed.

He returned his attention to the door of his store and locked it with a small twist of his wrist. He was trying, really he was, to remain in control of himself. Nathan had always been calm and collected; he had always had a fair sense of right and wrong and was keen to follow what he deemed correct in all things.

So… he couldn't explain this at all.

"Nathan!"

And there was the object of his confusion and nightly torment. Debbie… she had yet to favor him with a last name. But even though that was just odd he couldn't argue long against the pretty big blue eyes and gorgeous curves that made even the most frigid man smile.

He wasn't drawn in by her curves or her eyes though. Many women were prettier or curvier. It was her honesty that he was enamored with he supposed, that innate kindness that she boasted.

It still wasn't proper to let her slam into him as he did in his distraction. But he did and he couldn't stop her pressing her lips to his in a sudden flurry of passion. For a moment there it was tempting to lay a claim on all she offered. There she was like a ripe cherry in his arms and she was willing. But he was a gentleman.

"Oh come now! It's so late at night. There isn't anyone about but you and I," she purred.

That was the truth of it. But still…

"You aren't any fun at all," she huffed and it drew attention to her ample cleavage as she was surely aiming for. She was wearing a rather plain dress but the corseted top was too tight as she preferred them.

Life as a seamstress's apprentice had taught her to use these things to her advantage. Nathan knew Deborah longed for more. And he also knew she wasn't ready to settle with him, a simple store owner who could never afford to keep her in the finer clothes and jewels she hungered for. So he didn't know why she was still clinging to him and why he was allowing it.

If he had any sense he would have been looking for another young woman who would be content with what he could offer if not grateful.

"Oh Nathan." She was suddenly all comely softness and demure lady.

It fooled him not even a second. It made him scowl at her in some distaste. "Please, you and I have come too far for these displays."

Debbie pouted a little and grabbed his arm as he started down the dark streets. "Yet you seem to want a demure lady sometimes."

"If that's what I truly wanted then I'd have that," he breathed. Debbie smiled, pleased.

And there was the crux of it. He knew what he should have wanted. And Debbie was far from it. Yet now that she had snared him it was impossible to break away, impossible to run away. She was that forbidden piece of fruit. And he the very tempted Adam.

"I'll be going out on another one tomorrow,' Debbie said suddenly.

It was enough to make Nathan freeze. Debbie halted with him, her head tilted to study him knowingly.

"You said the last one would be your final one." The words were spoken slowly. He didn't want to sound accusing.

She grinned at him. "Well they need me for one more. It's important, only I can do this one."

Nathan couldn't speak for a moment. Debbie was into horribly dark things. All for her quest for money. Nathan knew it all. Of course he did. She never lied to him about it. And it was that honesty… that caught him.

He didn't think she was a bad person. After all a person had to eat. Debbie had told him she had been orphaned during the plague that had hit many when they had been but children. He himself had lost his elder sister and mother in the plague. Debbie had lost everyone.

So he could forgive her being in a gang of thieves. She was still bright in his eyes, still an angel. If she could retain her honesty and goodness even in such a life than she was worth his attention. Right?

Nathan thought so.

Debbie smiled to herself when he pulled her to him and kissed her. So much for decorum. He never could resist when she said she was going on a job. Always so worried she would get hurt or die, or worse… be caught. This was a death sentence in any case.

Debbie giggled when he lifted her and took her with eager steps to his loft a few blocks from his store.

Nathan was distracted all the next day as he ran his shop. He had probably offended a few customers with his sharpness and inattention. But he couldn't care.

All he could think about was how Debbie had looked below him with her hair mussed and lips full, begging to be drunk from. How she had grinned with cattish delight when he rolled her so she had the illusion of control even though it was still his own hips that rocked them both. Debbie didn't necessary hate having to be the submissive one but she did get a thrill and so did he from doing things that gave them both the illusion of role reversal.

Debbie had left like usual before he woke up. It was safer, she said, if they only met at night.

"You are seriously out of it. Are you feeling sick today, sir?"

Nathan blinked and focused on his assistant. She was a small thing with orange colored hair in a braid down her back. Her name was Irene. He took careful note of the worry flashing in her eyes and the way a blush decorated her cheeks and visible neck. Her hand was half out to press his forehead and he closed his eyes. He could read signs very well… and it made him sad for her and him.

There was no cleavage to be seen, Irene would faint if she even saw the kind of dress Debbie wore with pride. As would any mainstream girl of society.

"I promise I'm fine."

"If you're sure…" Irene said doubtfully.

Nathan sighed and took her outstretched hand and placed a brief perfunctory kiss against the soft skin covering her thin bones. Irene was still so young she could imagine affection in the gesture and he felt a bit guilty for it.

That night he closed his shop a little later than usual due to his distraction.

He was walking home when he remembered… he had the cash in the store. A deep frown hit him and he cursed. His hands absently went through the motions of lighting a cigar from his pocket and he savored the calming it induced.

He could just leave it there for the night. In his three years of business there had never been a break-in and he trusted his neighbors. It had just been easier to take the money with him at night and deposit it at the bank near his home the next morning.

But if he left it then that meant he'd have double to carry with him tomorrow and was that wise…

It was a debate. In the end he turned back and headed the three blocks back to his store. Nathan was a man of habit and a creature of finding comfort in those habits. Debbie had broken through his wall so he wanted to keep the others up and running smoothly.

When he stood on his steps he crushed the cigar under his boot before sticking the key back in and turning it. The door swung open and he found himself greeted with a loud crack. Nathan blinked dumbly as he took in the sight.

There were three people he didn't recognize looking at him with varied degrees of startled shock. But one he did recognize and it was this one he clamped his eyes on to.

"Debbie…? Wha… on earth…?"

The words weren't coming as easily as they usually did. Dimly he felt a sudden pain in his chest, felt something running down his stomach, something swimming into his breath. Debbie was holding a rifle. Smoke was floating from the barrel where it had discharged.

He had seen the hardness in her eyes but now it was blinked away as she regarded him. Was she startled? More importantly was she sorry at all?

"I just… reacted." She was saying dumbly. "You were supposed to be out for the night Nathan. You always are… just like you always forget the money when I go on a job. The one time you are truly scatterbrained…"

Ah, yes… he had told her that hadn't he? A while ago, months it seemed. Normally he left it. But today he had felt a pull to defend his habits. What… ludicrously that tonight of all nights would be the one she and her gang chose to target his place of business.

It was amusing to him. He who had always lived a life of control, of firm action and restraint… had been so terrifically taken in by someone like her. Why couldn't he have loved someone like Irene, so eager for his affection and kind words? Why had it been wasted on this woman who was now his end?

Somehow he had fallen to his knees, leaning on the door, or the world had tilted horribly. He dimly hears noises from outside. People had been woken up by her rifle.

"Debbie we gotta go!"

Her companions rushed past her. Debbie dropped the rifle and knelt next to him for a second. She looked at him seriously.

Nathan blinked at her, wanting to spit vile at her but that seemed such a waste for his final few minutes. So he crooked a finger at her instead.

"I s-still… love you," he whispered it out through his lungs that were filling with blood. Debbie leaned forward with a sigh and kissed him lingeringly, not caring about the blood he knew he had on his lips, blood she had spilled. Were there really tears around her eyes, clinging to her lashes and slipping down her cheeks? Or was that just his blurry vision going spotty on him?

She left, running for her life. Nathan closed his eyes.

He heard people around him, telling him to hang on. But there wasn't any more point in it. He had told his angel of his love, and she was still his angel. Even if she was an angel of death.

His final breath was soft and it held a trace of her name.

Nettie was breathing heavily against Redolphus's legs. Dimitri frowned when he saw it. So far she had shown a deep liking for warmth so how she could be sleeping so heavily… but of course.

Redolphus tilted his head to acknowledge his entrance. "So she sent an SOS to you?"

"With a frigid thing like you near her I'm not surprised by it," Dimitri returned and gently gathered her in his arms.

"You aren't going to attack me?" Redolphus asked.

Dimitri considered as he settled her against him. "You sent her into one of her past selves didn't you? Hoping that if she had past personalities awake inside her she would choose to leave me."

To his credit the reaper didn't move. Dimitri grinned devilishly.

"I'm not going to stand in your way. It will be fun, watching you struggle to thwart me… knowing that without your little tricks you can't ever beat me alone."

Nettie woke up around seven in the morning and remembered everything.

"Good morning dear girl."

Dimitri was waiting for her when she wandered into the kitchen. She took a moment off thinking about Debbie… no DEBORAH- To ogle him. He had changed and was even more drooling worthy than ever, just what she didn't need. But damned if she didn't life it. She had drooled over…

Dimitri was startled when tears swam in Nettie's eyes. All of a sudden she flopped into the kitchen chair and banged her head rather harshly against the table and let out a wail.

"I slept with Debb-… Deborah and liked it! I liked it! And what the hell was Iris doing there with a crush on me? I'm so done!"

He could only look at her in some mildly wary curiosity. Just what the hell had Redolphus shown her? Her emotions were whirring and were annoying at best.

"Why don't you calm down and tell me what you're talking about?" Deborah was… the one who had helped push her into a contract with him, if he was recalling correctly. Yes, he had some fond feeling to her for that. Debbie was… her twin maybe? Iris was not familiar to him.

Dimitri listened with cool politeness. At the end he patted her back gently. "There, there. It was only a past life."

"A past life where I loved the person who killed me! And I actually liked having her on to-…"

Dimitri tilted his head with a wicked glint in his eyes. "Oh really?"

Nettie flushed at him. "You. Just… just shut up. I need to get that out of my brain!"

"Sadly I won't be of any help to you there. I'm a demon but I don't have control of the human mind to erase memories."

Nettie stuck her tongue out at him and he cocked a brow. Really?

He hadn't thought he had chosen such a childish thing for a meal. But he supposed he could excuse it for now. She had just learned one of her past selves had been merrily in love with her current forms enemy after all. At the very least she only had to deal with it for one lifetime and her lifetime had been docked to two more years. He'd had to live with the knowledge he had once loved that stupid reaper for a millennia as a demon.

Dimitri leaned back in his chair as her cell went off. Then he felt a thrum through their bond and he gave her a look under his lashes.

Nettie was frozen looking at the text Rosalya had just sent her. There was a plan to oust Deborah? Count her in!.. No, it was Debbie after all… but this was a different life!

Nettie bit her lower lip as she felt the breath of Nathan in her lungs, his dying breath, and recalled he had really and truly loved Debbie… it had been a maddening and all consuming love but it was love nonetheless. And he had cherished it. She… had cherished it by default since Nathan was a past life of hers.

Before she could have said heck yes and ran with any half cocked plan. Or maybe tried to get Dimitri to eat Deborah. Would he do that if she asked?

A part of her revolted at the idea of any harm against her.

Nathan… he was now part of her and he was very against any plan to take out his love even if she had put a bullet in his chest cavity.

Nettie was torn horribly. But she knew she had to do something! Whether to stay out of anymore Deborah drama or to try to get rid of her she had to decide once and for all and silence the opposite part of her that wanted the other option.

So with a sigh Nettie entered in a message to Rosalya. It read…

End chapter

Author note: Bata-bing! Here you guys go!

THE CHOICES!

Choice A- Nettie decides to try to get Deborah out of sweet Amoris high

Choice B- Nettie makes a decision to stay out of any plan to get rid if the singer