“He reads minds?” Claire exclaimed angrily as she barged into Sean’s office after returning from the Toreador house that night.

“Good evening to you too; and who are we talking about?” Sean greeted her with a questioning look up from his desk.

Claire just scoffed, “Thomas, of course.”

Sean looked down a moment as he tried to find a response; “he was embraced by the same sire, only four years after Haven, so…” he finished with a slight shrug.

Claire scoffed more loudly then, “did you just shrug?” she shook her head in disbelief, “you already knew that he read minds? And you let me go over there?”

Sean looked back at her with a shake of his own head before offering any more words, “though he didn’t come right out and say he read minds; it was a fairly obvious assumption to make” he told her in the same slightly flat tone.

Another sound of disbelief passed her lips as she centered an angry look on Sean, “and you let me go over there?” she repeated.

“Honestly, Claire I haven’t really been privy to how you’ve spent much of your time at all lately” he admitted with another look down as he tried to keep his tone as even as possible.

“I’d think that if you knew he read minds, you would have at least given me some kind of warning when you first told me about him” she retorted, not doing as well at keeping her own voice even.

“Like I said; I thought it was a fairly obvious assumption” he repeated with only a slight drop in volume, “honestly most of the members of our line, especially those older than us, most likely do that. You’re the only one that has a…” he just shook his head as he looked away again.

“Has a problem with it?” Claire returned with a trace of bitterness.

“See, you do almost read minds” he returned in a tone that was somehow equally wry as it was regretful.

Another loud scoff, “why don’t you just say it, Sean?”

“Say what?” he asked, a tiny bit of emotion peeking into his otherwise even tone.

“That you think I’m a fool; a naïve idealist who thinks we can live in a world where we don’t have to constantly rip things out of others’ minds” she returned in the same angry and hurt tone.

“I’ve never said any of those things, Claire” Sean stated, though his volume decreased even further.

She shook her head while she centered that dark look on him for a long time as he refused to return her gaze. Then after another moment of exasperation and worry about what exactly Thomas had ripped out of her head, she unleashed another angry barb, “and you’ve done such good things with that ability yourself, haven’t you?” she stated coldly, an obvious reference to what he had done to Kristofer, as it was the most apparent point of contention between them for months now.

Sean sighed with a bit of his own upset, “and why don’t you just say it; that you think I’m some kind of tyrant who takes a twisted pleasure in ripping secrets from people’s minds and bending them to my will to suit my own purposes.” Claire glared back as if about to respond, then decided against it and remained silent another moment. That was when Sean finally looked back up at her, “you’re not denying that that’s your opinion. So I suppose now you’re going to accuse me of ripping that from your mind?”

“Well that would go against the promise you made to me, now wouldn’t it?” Claire returned pointedly.

Sean sighed more sadly then as his voice dropped again, “I’ve known you since 1586, Claire. I’ve loved you since 1586” he added, “I don’t need to read your mind to know how you think and feel. And I’m fairly positive you can guess at every one of my thoughts and feelings too. It’s called being soul mates. Which is what we always used to consider ourselves, isn’t it?” he asked as his voice dropped sadly on the question, as though he were trying to get any kind of reassurance at all that she did honestly still feel that way.

Claire took a long moment to bite back her tears at the idea that he honestly needed reassurance that she still loved him as much as she always had. Yet she was still so angry and upset it remained difficult for her to give him such. That’s when she finally attempted to steer the conversation back to the problem at hand, “he insinuated that he knew that we were bound to one another.”

That did do well to move Sean past his immediate reaction to her not giving him that reassurance he had been practically pleading for; as he felt another surge of fear at her last statement, “I guess it’s a good thing then that we’re no longer fully bound to each other; considering how long it’s been since…” he then just shook his head again as his voice trailed off once more.

“He’s older than us. He’s more powerful than us. He obviously doesn’t think you should hold your current title. We can’t let him remain here, Sean” she warned.

That was when Sean let out another sad scoff, “and how do you suggest we get rid of him?”

“We can tell Hollister” she offered.

“Tell Hollister what? That his childe makes us uncomfortable so could he please tell him to go home?” Sean returned with a sad sarcasm.

Claire sighed in frustration as she began pacing inside the office door, “there’s gotta be some way.”

“I’m listening” Sean stated with another shrug of what almost looked like defeat.

“How are you so calm about this, Sean?” Claire asked him with further disbelief.

“I’m not calm. I just don’t see a lot of options. Plus, he technically hasn’t done anything other than read our minds; and as unsettling as that is, it’s not something I can really call a blood hunt on him for” Sean shook his head again.

“But he’s obviously going to be a problem” she argued weakly.

“Again, unless he breaks…”

“Goddammit, Sean” she interrupted with further frustration, “you’re the Prince; there’s gotta be something you can do!”

“Claire, I can’t just… Until he proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he is a real threat to me or my territory…” Sean began, only to have her interrupt again.

“This is bullshit” she retorted angrily.

“What do you want me to do, Claire?” Sean asked with another questioning look back at her.

“Get rid of him!”

“Ok, how?” Sean returned pointedly.

That’s when Claire let out another sound of frustration as she continued to agitatedly pace the floor. After another long moment, she suddenly stopped and looked back at Sean as if she had a thought; though her expression showed more than a bit of hesitation to share it.

“Yes?” Sean prodded after another moment of her silent contemplation.

“There is someone who is powerful enough to get rid of him” she stated warily.

“Someone who actually is in this territory?” Sean retorted.

“Yeah” she returned, though the word was a raspy whisper.

“And who might that be?” Sean asked warily.

Claire swallowed hard as she focused her eyes to see if there was anyone within earshot of the office. She then sighed heavily before moving closer to the desk and speaking furtively, “Kristofer’s wife.”

Sean was more than a bit taken aback by that suggestion; “you can’t possibly be serious” was the only response he could come up with.

“It’s true though; there are hardly any of us that could stand a chance against her. Probably not even Thomas” Claire returned in the same whisper.

“Even if that is accurate” he stated as he mulled the words over, “there’s no way we could ever get him and her in the same place without endangering all of our own lives or our servants’. Either she would kill every one of us; or he would pull the plan from our head the second he was in the same room as us and he’d kill us” Sean warned sadly.

“There’s gotta be a way. She’s the best weapon we have” Claire responded with desperation.

“A weapon that would kill any of us who tried to use it” Sean warned further. They then both sighed almost simultaneously, “but if you think of some way, I’d love to hear it” he added.

“Then I guess I’ll have to think of some way” Claire returned with another heavy sigh as she left the room to try and contemplate how they could come up with any plan to remove this new problem that had moved right inside their fence with them that night.

Over the next week, neither Sean nor Claire had seen Thomas make any attempts to return to the main house for any reason. Though it was odd that a new addition to their territory and compound would not even make any move to get to know either of them in any way; they both were a bit relieved, if somewhat suspicious, in regards to his aloofness. They both had spent most of that week attempting to come up with some plan for when, not if, but when Thomas would make some move against them.

Claire was upstairs pondering any possible plan, while Sean was in his office doing the same. Though both of them had their concentration quite efficiently halted when the sound of a loud gunshot rang out from what sounded like it was inside their very home. Both quickly moved, along with their servants, to find the source of the sound. As Sean stepped out of the office looking more than a bit concerned, Nicolas was moving across the main hall, looking just as startled by the deafening sound of that single shot.

Nicolas startled even further when Sean entered the room at the same time and moved his eyes to the young man. Quickly trying to find some response, Nicolas looked over at Sean as he moved across the room toward the young man, "Ça sonnait comme il est venu du sous-sol.”

Sean huffed in frustration, “English dammit, Nicolas!” he ordered a little roughly.

Nicolas swallowed hard, but quickly replied; “it sounded like it came from the basement” he translated shakily.

Sean then moved past the still quite fearful young man as he headed for the stairs that led downwards. Once he reached the bottom of the steps, Sean came to a halt when his eyes fell on the body lying outside the still open armory door. He took a few wary steps closer as he soon realized that it was Amanda laying there with most of her blood and brains sprayed across the floor, her fingers still curled around the pistol. He swallowed hard as he forced his feet to carry him closer as he first sensed, then heard Claire coming down the steps behind him as a whimper left her lips at the sight as well.

Once he made himself move closer, he noted that she was clad in nothing but a short, tattered and bloodstained night dress. Her pale skin was covered in bruises, cuts and even burns, a heavy river of blood pouring down her inner thighs as well, despite the fatal wound being to her skull.

“She killed herself?” Claire whimpered the obvious as she moved to tightly grip Sean’s arm from behind.

“It looks like a lot more than that happened to her first” Sean whispered as he moved to close his hand over where Claire’s clung tightly to him.

“I gave her to Thomas, the night he arrived” Claire whispered shakily as she turned her eyes from the girl’s body, though continued to hold onto Sean tightly.

Sean let out his own shaky sigh, “we don’t know that he was responsible for this; it was obviously suicide” Sean tried to reason; though his tone made it clear that he didn’t quite believe his own words.

“People don’t kill themselves without a damn good reason” Claire replied in the same shaken tone.

“Still, we can’t…” Sean shook his head, not even wanting to bother attempting to make that argument again.

“You can find out though… what he did to her” Claire stated as she looked up at Sean.

“What?” Sean asked, finally looking back down at her.

“The same way you found out what happened at the tavern” Claire told him, “you can touch her, and see what, or who, made her do this” Claire stated in a whisper.

Sean swallowed again, as it took him months to get that scene from the tavern out of his head once he let it in. Then he sighed as he looked back at Claire’s pleading eyes, then back to the dead girl lying in a pool of her own blood. After another moment he finally moved from Claire’s shaking hands and slowly made himself stoop down next to Amanda’s battered and bruised body. Another moment before he finally let himself reach out to gently touch her arm.

After mere seconds, Sean quickly drew back from her to try and stop the visions of the horror that had befallen the girl. The things that had been done to her had easily broken her so badly that she took her own life after only one week at the hands of the man that could so easily do the same to any one of them had he wanted to.

“What?” Claire asked as she saw Sean’s obvious horror and disgust at whatever he had just seen, “was it Thomas?”

Sean had to take another moment before he found words, then they came out hoarsely, “he’s no Toreador.”

Claire looked obviously confused and had to get clarification, “but he’s Daniel’s sire; Hollister’s childe.”

“He’s the thing Haven warned me about” Sean added in the same whisper.

“What? I don’t understand, Sean. How can he not be a Toreador if he’s part of our own bloodline?”

“He’s antitribu” Sean confessed, his voice breaking on the word.

“Bravo. You two are quite good little detectives” Thomas’ voice greeted them from where he had now begun descending the stairs as they both whirled around to turn their eyes on him, “too bad neither of you will remember that delectable mystery you just solved.”