Lissa shoved Rose onto the bed with a smirk. She slowly slid Rose's shirt off and kissed her stomach. Then, she bit down hard. Rose whimpered in pain and Lissa darted away. "Rose, I don't know what happened! I'm sorry!"

Rose eyed Lissa warily. "I know you didn't mean to, but until we're sure this has passed can you stay away from me?"

Lissa's eyes took an angry shine. "After what you just agreed to? Of course not. Who would be stupid enough to leave their newest pet all alone before she's used to her new house?"

Rose gulped as Lissa grabbed her wrists possessively. "Lissa, you're hurting me. Please let go."

Lissa slammed Rose's wrists against the bed posts and Rose shrieked in pain. "Stop pretending like I'm not your owner! You're all mine and I can do whatever I please to you."

"Lissa, I need you to step away from Rose," a calm voice interjected. Rose watched as Eddie slowly walked toward Lissa. Lissa growled and dug her nails into Rose's skin. Rose quivered in fear. "Lissa, I don't want to have to use force. Neither of us want that."

"Back off, Eddie!" Lissa barked. "You have your little fuck boy so why should you get her too?"

Eddie sighed angrily. "Lissa, there are so many things wrong with what you just said. Don't say I didn't warn you." He lunged forward and grabbed Lissa's free arm. Lissa screeched and let go of Rose's wrists. She turned her aggression on Eddie and raked her nails down his face. "Chris, get Rose out of here!"

Rose grabbed her shirt and sprinted from the room. Christian closed the door and sighed. "Let's go upstairs so that we don't see what goes on." He went to grab Rose's hand, but she flinched in pain. "Jesus, Rose! Did Lissa do this to your wrist just now?" Rose nodded as a few tears trickled down her face. "Hey, it's going to be ok. I don't know what got into Lissa, but Eddie and I will both protect you."

"Is Eddie ever this way?" Rose whispered.

"There's plenty of time to talk later," Christian replied. "First let's get you something for the pain and something to calm your nerves." Rose followed Christian up the stairs, but stopped when she got to the door. Christian opened the door and walked through, but Rose felt like her feet were stuck in cement. Christian stopped. "What's the matter?"

"She's going to get mad if I come upstairs," Rose replied. Christian saw that Rose was visibly shaking.

"Rose, we won't let her hurt you," Christian said. "Besides, it's safer up here than it is down there right now." Rose slowly stepped over the threshold. "See? Nothing scary up here."

Christian led Rose to the kitchen and helped her into a chair. Dimtri was stirring a boiling over pot. "Some cook you are, Christian..." He trailed off when he saw Rose. "I'll go get the first aid kit. Make her some hot chocolate."

Christian started to heat up some milk. "The answer to your question is yes, by the way. After Mason died, Eddie had a lot of trouble coping. He would get angry and try to force himself on me. So I'd walk out. I knew that he cared enough about me to change his ways. So will Lissa."

"She's normally like this?!" Rose gasped.

Christian shook his head. "No... Not with you at least. When she had her first sub, she was really aggressive. She put that girl in the hospital. Eddie thought that after that Lissa would never even entertain the idea of being in this kind of relationship with you."

Rose murmured, "It wasn't like this until after I agreed to let her dominate me outside of the bedroom too."

"No correlation," Christian assured her. "There's something else going on with her."

Rose growled and slammed her fist down on the counter before howling in pain. "I think I know why she's acting this way. It's the darkness from Winter. If I remember right, this should pass within a week."

Dimtri walked back into the kitchen and started to fix up Rose's wrist. He handed Christian a bottle and said, "Crush two of those up and put them in her cocoa. They're sedatives so they should calm her nerves, relieve a bit of her pain, and hopefully help her sleep."

Christian nodded and sprinkled the crushed pills in with the cocoa powder. He suddenly stopped and commanded, "Dimtri, get in front of Rose. I heard someone coming up the stairs. If it's Lissa, shit's going to go down. If it's Eddie, you can relax."

The door swung open and Eddie stepped through. He closed the door and locked it. He sat beside Rose and glanced at her wrists. Rose noticed that he was crying and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Memories," Eddie replied. Christian wrapped his arms around Eddie. "Hey, Love. Did she land any hits on you?"

"No," Christian replied. "But she got quite a few on you. Let Dimtri patch you up."

"No," Eddie argued. "I can do it myself. I need Dimtri to watch the door in case Lissa breaks out."

"What did you do to her?" Rose asked.

"Gave her a taste of her own medicine," Eddie replied. "I restrained her in her playroom. Eventually she'll calm down. Once it's safer, I'll take you down there so she can see the damage she caused. In the meantime, Dimtri and I will take turns guarding you."

"I can protect myself," Rose spat.

Christian glanced at Eddie and shook his head. "We know that," Christian assured her. "But there's also that part of you that will submit to her will. If she catches on to that part of you before she's remorseful, we don't know what will happen." He set a steaming cup of hot chocolate in front of Rose and turned back to the stove. "The spaghetti is almost done. Should we just eat in here?" Everyone nodded.

Meanwhile, Lissa came to in the basement. She yanked at her wrists and stared. "What is happening?"
"At last we meet," a low voice laughed. "Sorry that all of that happened, but I needed to get you alone." Winter materialized in front of Lissa. "Now it's time for us to have a chat."