To Kali's great displeasure, Isobel tried to stay in Alastor's company as much as possible the next coming days. She remained no more than five feet away from him at any given moment. She canceled her daily talks with her followers, completely disregarded any schedule that was set for her, and refused any private audiences.

Kali was at her wits end. Her plan of confronting the Shepherd had backfired tremendously, and now she had even less of Isobel's confidence than before. It also put Vincent on Alastor's radar. Before he was little more than furniture in the Overlord's eyes, but now he was a problem. Any time he would get anywhere near Isobel, Alastor would catch his attention and stare threateningly until Vincent made the decision to slink away, tail between his legs.

Isobel, herself, limited her interaction with her followers. She went back into hiding on the roof or in Angel's room. When any of them asked her about her sudden disappearance, she would tell them she just needed some peaceful time to herself. They all seemed to be completely understanding. Truthfully it was only Kali who had her panties in a twist.

However, Isobel knew she couldn't keep it up forever. She wouldn't be able to hide in Alastor's shadow for long, nor did she want to. She would have to deal with the situation at hand eventually.

Three nights after the unpleasant conversation with Kali and Vincent, Alastor left Isobel on her own. Charlie had some kind of crisis and needed his help. The role of the hotel's host was tiring and relenting, he explained, but one must keep their word. So Isobel decided to stay in her room. She put on her black slip nightgown and piled her hair up in an unkempt bun on the top of her head. She settled in with a copy of Fahrenheit 451 to read until she fell asleep.

Not long after Alastor had left, Isobel began to hear strange noises from her door. It was a very quiet noise. Maybe scratching or tapping. She couldn't really make it out, but it was just loud enough to distract her from her reading and to become incredibly annoying. She threw the covers off of her and marched to the door.

It's probably Nifty carving a rude message into the door with a knife or something, she thought to herself as she opened it wide. However, to her surprise, Vincent stood on the other side. He seemed to be on edge looking up and down the hall as if trying to make sure he wasn't being followed. Isobel's eyebrows instantly pinched together, severely angry and confused. Hadn't she made herself clear? He better have a damn good reason for being here this late.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, as he pushed his way in, closing the door quietly behind him. She took several steps away and crossed her arms.

"I wanted to finish our conversation," he gave her a boyish smile. "We were interrupted and unfortunately this was the first time you've been alone since then."

"There is nothing to finish. There's nothing left to say."

"You were going to say something right before he showed up," Vincent took several steps toward her, gone was the pious decorum, replaced with an over-familiarity that Isobel did not approve of. "Right after I told you that you didn't need him anymore, after I said I would die for you, you were going to say something. I know you were going to agree with me. But somehow that monster reeled you back in and has been a guard dog over you since."

"Stop," Isobel said quietly, darkly. "You do not know what you're talking about and you need to get out before he comes back and gets the wrong impression."

"I know you're scared of him. That's why you pulled your hand away so quickly."

"First of all, everyone is scared of him. Secondly, I did not snatch my hand away for my sake. I did it for yours." She shook her head totally exasperated. "I am tired of this. Please, just go."

"I can't leave you like this."

Isobel stood up straight dropping her arms, she might just feed Vincent to Alastor herself. It was time to pull out the authority voice again.

"You seem to be laboring under a misconception." She moved past him toward the door, but as she did he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her close.

"No, it's you who doesn't understand. You think there is something romantic about your relationship, something special. But the truth is he is just as bad as all the rest, probably worse. He's a monster."

Isobel had frozen. She didn't like to be grabbed like that. The only one who had dared put hands on her like that was Alastor and she had not hesitated to tell him loudly how she felt about it, embarrassing him in front of Lucifer. But that was a long time ago, and so many things had changed since then.

It felt like the anger took over her brain as well as her body. Her hand instinctively shot up to grab his. She pried his fingers off her arm and squeezed hard, feeling the crack and pop of tiny bones in her fist. Her strength and fury caught him off guard. She should not be capable of either. He cried out and dropped to one knee, clutching his broken fingers. She seized one of his curling horns and tilted his head up so he was looking at her. Crazed green fire glared back.

"I know he's a monster, and I don't care." She punctuated each word like a hammer. He looked up at her with an expression she did not recognize. Was it fear? Could he be scared of her? "What I was going to tell you when Alastor interrupted us, was that I finally understood why you are here, why Kali brought you here. You have a very specific job, don't you? Tell me," She yanked on his ram's horn. "Are you really even her brother?" He slowly shook his head.

"So what were you supposed to do? Gain my confidence? Distract me? Seduce me even?" With every question her rage grew. How could she have been so stupid, so gullible? Her eyes blazed, turning bloodshot. The corruption crawled up her arms and legs. "I am not some fool for you and Kali to play with and manipulate." A kind of electricity seemed to permeate her very skin, making her hair stand on end. A subtle purple glow emanated from her hands and with a twist of her wrist, Isobel broke Vincent's horn clear off.

He yowled and fell to the floor clutching his bleeding head. Isobel was left breathing heavy as if she had just sprinted a mile. She threw the horn down at him and casually walked to the foot of the bed where a red dressing gown lay. She picked it up and wrapped it around herself, the black embroidered A crossing her chest.

"I'm going to leave," she said matter-of-factly. "I think I will go to the lobby and see what Angel is up to. When I come back you will be gone and I will never see you again."

Without even a glance in his general direction, she crossed to the door. She practically had to step over him as she went and lacking another word or hesitation, she was gone, leaving the door ajar.

It took Vincent a while to collect himself. He didn't know how this happened. Or exactly what happened. The strength she displayed should be impossible for a living being to possess, and yet there he was on the floor bleeding, broken fingers and missing horn. He stumbled to his feet tucking his ruined hand under his arm to control the violent throbbing of pain. He collected the discarded horn from the floor and limped out to the hallway.

He had had enough of this charade. He was not getting paid nearly enough for this, and so he would heed Isobel's warning. He would be gone within the hour. Yeah, Kali would be pissed, but it was clear now that dealing with her was a lot safer than dealing with the Shepherd. Kali didn't know what forces she was fucking with. At least he was smart enough to have kept his soul.

He was five steps out of Isobel's room when he noticed the light at the far end of the hall flickered and died. The next light followed. And then the next. Vincent turned around, but as he did the light above him shattered sending sparks and glass raining on him. All at once the rest of the lights failed, casting the hall into an unnatural darkness. It was the kind of dark that felt like velvet. The kind of dark that might cover a person like ink.

Vincent's heart was now in his throat. He licked his lips as his eyes searched this way and that for some source of light, but finding none. His eyes looked down to where his feet should be and he realized he could just make out his own shadow lit by a strange glow from behind. He slowly turned, then everything inside of him seized up with fear.

Not twenty feet away, backlit by a ghoulish green light, Alastor dominated the space. He was so tall that he had to hunch in an odd way to avoid the ceiling. His arms and legs were crooked and held at grotesque angles. But he stood still and proper his hands clasped over the head of his cane. Around his feet, his little shadow minions crouched as if ready to pounce.

He took a step forward and Vincent could hear the scraping of his massive antlers against the tiled ceiling. Another step and the green light intensified now revealing six black tentacles. They reached out to either side thumping against the walls. Another step.

Vincent told himself to run, but his body was paralyzed with terror and refused to obey. All he could do was watch as Alastor slowly advanced. He was now so close that Vincent could see the bright green stitches at the corners of his ghastly smile and the radio dials spinning in his eyes.

"A monster, am I?" he said as the static of his radio crackled and hissed just as everything went black.