He kissed her, his stubble lightly scratching her chin but it didn't bother her. She was too caught up in the emotion of it all. His tongue slid against hers with his hands exploring her body and it made her breathing heavier, then his hands went lower and she spread her legs wider to accommodate him. She wanted him, she wanted him to touch her, to fuck her and she ran her hands up under his shirt. His body was firm and she ran her hands across his smooth skin and he slid his fingers over her clit while they kissed harder. Michael was an amazing kisser and she opened her eyes to look at him and she looked straight into the cold blue ice that were David's eyes and he smiled at her.

She woke up but before she had even opened her eyes, she felt someone touching her, between her legs. She opened her eyes and found herself staring into the same blue eyes from her dream. She jolted a little to see David sitting on her bed beside her, totally calm and watching her.

'Expecting someone else?' He asked her but she didn't answer him and he inserted his fingers inside her and began to rhythmically thrust his hand into her. She didn't understand what he was doing but it felt so good that she instinctually began to move with him and she closed her eyes. For all David's shortcomings, he definitely knew what he was doing with a woman. She opened her eyes again and he sat there dead still like he was a statue and gently brought her to a mind numbingly intense climax, with just one hand. Once she had cum, she was overwhelmed with a massive amount of vulnerability and a huge sense of shame and she pulled her skirt back down over her legs, while he sat there looking full of self-satisfaction over what he'd just done to her.

'Who do you belong to?' He asked her and she looked down. 'Who do you belong to Star?' He repeated in a harsher more serious tone.

'You David. I belong to you.' She answered him without looking at him and trying to catch her breath.

'Yeah you do. Don't you ever forget it. Now, I want you to kill Michael. Tonight. He will be your first.' She kept her eyes fixed on the sharp piece of a rock across the other side of the room, wishing she could hit David over the head with it and not let him do anything or make her do anything to Michael. 'Say it.' He said and still wouldn't look at him. Suddenly his hand was squeezing her throat and pressing on her windpipe. 'Say it!' She looked up at him to see his eyes had changed into the yellow and red orbs she was so scared of, making her dread the reality of what he had just said.

'He will be my first.' She said as low as her voice could go as if it would somehow make it null in void. He took his hand back and he gently stroked her cheek.

'You'll do as I say Star. If you think you lost everything when I killed your father and brother that will pale in comparison to what I'll take from you if you don't this time. I'm sick of this shit Star.' He walked off and Marko and Paul appeared from out the back. She sat up pulling her shawl tighter around her shoulders and watched them all get ready to go out. David told her to stay in the cave and the boys all left and she sat there feeling dirty and empty. She didn't want to kill Michael, she didn't want to kill anyone, but especially not Michael. He was everything David wasn't and everything she was sure she wanted, and she now knew she really cared for him.

'Star, can we go out?' Laddie asked her and although she didn't want to go anywhere and had been told not to go anywhere, she knew she was going to have to feed the poor kid something.

'Yeah, OK. Where would you like to go?' She asked him.

'Where have the boys gone?' He asked her hopeful they could meet up with them.

'I don't know Laddie. I think they're going to be late tonight.' His face drooped a little at hearing this news and she felt sorry for the kid, he loved Dwayne so much. David had taken him from a loving family and brought him here where he had bonded with Dwayne and, to an extent, Paul and now David was taking them away from him too. David was an asshole, he just didn't care. David cared about David and she could see that now.

'Can we go to Skater's Heaven downtown?' Star looked at him confused.

'How do you know where that is?' She asked him.

'Dwayne took me there.' Had he? Where else had these boys taken him?

'Ahhh… sure. OK.' She said, grabbing her jacket and beginning to walk out but he didn't move and she stopped and looked back at him. 'What's wrong?'

'Can we fly there?' He asked with his head down.

'Oh Laddie, it's a little too early.' She looked down at him.

'Please?' He looked up at her, all innocent and she couldn't help herself and she folded.

'OK, but we have to be really careful, right?'

'Yep.' He said smiling and they left. They flew inland and she was surprised at how adept he'd become at flight. It was almost like it came naturally to him, either that or the boys had been teaching him far more than she knew about. It wouldn't be David's or Marko's doing, this screamed of Dwayne's and Paul's handiwork and it scared her how Laddie enjoyed it so much. They arrived and landed down a dark alley a few streets away from the lights of the main drag in downtown Santa Carla. They walked the short distance towards the Skate store where Laddie wanted to go and they passed the store where she'd acquired the slinky red dress David had made her wear to lure the council man in San Francisco a few months back and she stopped. It seemed like a lifetime ago yet at the same time only yesterday and she looked back on herself and wished she'd seen the warning flags that were waving right in front of her back then, but even then it was too late and things had gone too far already. Laddie spotted the skate store and skipped off and she continued slowly down the street. She thought back to that night and how it had felt like David was doing something for somebody else and she still didn't know who that someone was. The whole thing had seemed like nothing he would have been a part of or even cared about and she still felt like there was something or someone that David was hiding from her, and maybe from the other boys too. Something was off and she wondered if that was why he turned Michael when he would have killed anyone else in a split second whom she had done that with. He didn't change Michael for her benefit or for his but there was definitely a reason he had done it, it just didn't make any sense otherwise. She looked up to see Laddie bolting out of the store with a skateboard under his arm and a rather large man coming out after him, grabbing his jacket collar.

'What the fuck you doing, you little shit?!' He yelled at him.

'Hey!' She called out. 'Let go of him!' The man looked up at her.

'Is he yours?!' He demanded. 'He stole the skateboard!' She walked up to the man.

'Hey, calm down.' She said quietly while she commanded strong eye contact with the man. 'He didn't mean it. It was a mistake.' The man let Laddie go while he looked a little mesmerized at her. She reached up and gently touched his cheek, tilting her head. 'Now, I'd like you to give him the skateboard and forget all about this. OK?' She told him and he continued to stare at her. 'You're going to do this for me.' She ran her finger along his bottom lip and he smiled back. The man looked like he was drunk and he pat Laddie on the back.

'See ya around kid.' He said not taking his eyes off Star and she smiled again and both her and Laddie turned and walked away. Once they were around the corner, Star stopped and looked at him.

'Why did you do that?' She asked him annoyed. 'If they'd have called the cops, we would be in more than a bit of trouble Laddie.'

'I'm sorry, I've seen Dwayne do it.' He kept his eyes to the ground.

'Yeah well, you don't want to be like Dwayne.' She said and then she realised; the flying, the skateboard, stealing the skateboard… He did want to be like Dwayne, he was trying to be exactly like Dwayne and that's when she knew no matter how much Dwayne seemed to care for Laddie, he was just as bad for the kid as the rest of them were. A deep sadness came over her, he needed a good role model in life, not these evil monsters. 'Come on, let's go get something to eat.' She put her arm around him and they walked down and across the street to a burger joint and ordered some food. He ate a cheeseburger and some fries while she tried to struggle down a milk shake, which made her feel sick. It had been a long time since David had let her have some blood from him and the effects were grating on her. She didn't want to believe it, she didn't want to want the taste of blood in her mouth, taking away the nagging pain in her gut but she did, and being around all these living beings was torturing her. She hurried Laddie along, she had to get out of there and she wanted to get back to the cave and away from everyone. She'd had enough of Santa Carla for tonight.

They flew back up to the Bluff and clambered down into the cave and Laddie instantly began to try some of the tricks that Dwayne did while she took off her jacket, lit one of the barrels and tried to centre herself. She even contemplated drinking some of David's wine but then she remembered his reaction when Laddie had drunk some and she knew that would make everything worse for her, especially on a night where she was supposed to kill Michael. Oh God, Michael. She'd forgotten about her task for the night. What was she going to do? Was she supposed to go find him? David had told her to stay there so obviously she wasn't supposed to go to him, was David going to bring Michael to her? How was she going to get around this? Would she even be able to deny the burgeoning urges for blood anyways? She knew she was weak and she knew David knew it too but she also knew she couldn't kill, definitely not someone who she cared about, Laddie had taught her that, and the way she was feeling about Michael, she knew she couldn't hurt him either. That made her really think about her true feelings for the boy and she began to think that she had actually fallen for him. The cave had gone quiet and she looked over and Laddie had put himself to bed. She walked over to him and he was laying with his teddy.

'I'm sorry, I didn't want to get you in trouble.' He said yawning and she sat on his bed and stroked his hair.

'It's OK, we just have to be really careful.' She said.

'OK.' He said his eyes closing. She stayed seated on his bed and once he was asleep, she picked up the bear Paul had given him and she looked at it. He was still such a little boy, even though he had the same monster dwelling inside him and again she told herself she had to get him out of here. Suddenly Michael came down into the cave waving a fire torch and her stomach was instantly in knots.

'Star!' He yelled out looking for her but she remained quiet and just watched him. 'Star?' He said again and he looked behind the curtains around her bed but being unable to find her, he lit another barrel and walked over and picked up David's bottle which, to her surprise, was empty and he sniffed at the neck. He then promptly fired it across the room smashing it against the stone wall into a thousand pieces and she could see his panicked anxiety and she put down the bear.

'I'm over here Michael.' She stood up and walked towards him and he turned to her.

'What's happening to me Star?' He asked her exacerbated.

'Oh Michael.' She walked faster to him.

'What's happening to me Star?'

'Oh, Michael. I can't tell you, I don't know how to help you.' She put her arms around him and hugged him She wanted to protect him from what was happening to him, to take it away and make it all better but she couldn't. She couldn't even tell him what was going on because David had forbidden her to. And she sure as shit couldn't kill him, she loved him.

'What's happening?' He looked so lost and confused and she kissed him and the instant her lips touched his she lost all control and she wanted him. She felt just like she did in her dream and it was like the more she kissed and loved him and the more he kissed and touched her, that they could heal each other of the monsters inside them and everything was going to be OK. David and the boys were suddenly distant memories and he slowly began to undress her and her desire to be closer to him increased. She wanted him so badly that she wanted to be a part of him and she lay back and allowed his hands to roam her body and his tongue to taste her. He was close enough that she could hear his heart beating and smell the blood rushing through his veins but she restrained her need for blood, there was no way she was going to kill Michael. She pushed those thoughts out of her head and she felt him slide between her legs and enter her and she was engulfed with ecstasy as they made love for the first time.