Despite the one brief attempt at lightness between Sean and Claire, another long awkward silence soon followed. There were just so many thoughts and worries over everything that had happened the last week, let alone the issues that had already been present for nearly a year before that. Finally, it was Claire who spoke up from where they each had remained seated in that tense silence.

“He could be here at any moment” she stated somberly.

“Are we still talking about Thomas?” Sean had to ask.

“Him too I suppose” Claire sighed.

That was when Sean mirrored her sigh, “do we even want to try to talk about that before we know if and when the Thomas problem might go away?”

“We may have no choice; like I said, he could be here at any moment” Claire reiterated with continued discontent.

“We don’t even know for sure if he or his wife are even still alive, do we?” Sean stated as his eyes held fast to the floor between their two seats.

Another sigh of frustration from Claire before she answered, “no, I suppose not definitively; but we can logically assume that if his wife were still alive…”

“Then none of us would be” Sean finished for her quietly.

“I saw the gun when we…” she just shook her head, “and if he went back home to her with the smell of my blood on him,” Claire swallowed hard again, “she would have known immediately and come after me…” she then let her voice trail off again.

“And then he would’ve shot her… and you did hear a gunshot right after…” Sean finished for her as his volume dropped even lower.

“So, the most likely scenario…” she just shook her head.

“Is that I forced a man to kill his own wife” Sean barely managed the words through a hoarse whisper.

Claire sniffled slightly before she made herself respond, “to save your own wife.” Though Sean’s eyes just stayed on the floor as if to try and fight back all of the emotions he had to be feeling right then. Claire then willed her voice to work again, “and now he not only knows that I’m alive; but he also knows what I am. And I’m sure he’s got a few million questions about both of those facts, not to mention why I suddenly wanted… not to mention questions about how he could not stop himself from pulling that trigger; just like I couldn’t stop myself from…” she then looked down as well with another sniffle.

There was another long quiet moment before Sean spoke again, “but if I hadn’t come to the tavern that night, and read his thoughts; you never would’ve known about his family. And you never would have forced him out of your life. You probably would have actually… Wouldn’t you have?” he asked her sadly as he finally moved his sad blue eyes back to her.

“What exactly are you asking me, Sean?” Claire returned, letting her gaze come back to his face at last.

“If I had never read his mind and found out what his family were; you would have taken him as a lover. Wouldn’t you have?” he asked her with some strange desperation to hear that answer somehow.

“I’m not sure what that has…”

“Please, I need to know” Sean interrupted.

“Why?” was the only response Claire could manage.

“You have to tell me that you would have been alright with the idea of making love to him; if the situation had been different” Sean stressed.

“You’ve lost me here, Sean” Claire whispered back.

“You have to tell me that you were ok with him touching you; doing that to you. Because, if you weren’t… that means that Thomas forced you into…” Sean’s voice broke as he looked away again, his fingernails digging deeply into the arms of the chair.

That was when Claire suddenly realized where that desperation was suddenly coming from. She then swallowed hard again, “you’re asking me if I feel like I’ve been…”

“Please tell me that isn’t what it felt like for you” Sean repeated in the same hoarse whisper.

Claire sighed shakily as she tried to find any response at all. She then finally decided that the truth was the only option, “I honestly can’t even describe what it felt like; what I’m even feeling right now. You’re right; I would have been ok taking Kristofer as a lover, before all of this… But at the same time, it wasn’t my choice last night. But it wasn’t because Kristofer forced himself on me. If anything, I was the one who started it all. If anything he was the one taken advantage of… but he didn’t protest. But neither did I. I couldn’t. So, I honestly don’t know how to describe it” another sigh, “Kristofer and I both wanted each other; but not the way it actually happened. So, how am I supposed to even know what it was or wasn’t. How am I supposed to describe how this feels?” she finished with another sniffle.

After another long moment, Sean spoke, obviously biting back tears, “to me, it feels like Thomas was the one who raped you… without even touching you” he finished as his despair immediately turned to rage as he got to his feet.

“Please Sean stop!”

“Stop?” he nearly shouted back, “how can I stop? He needs to die, and he needs to die now!” he exclaimed as he turned.

“I’m begging you to stop Sean!” Claire pleaded as she moved to desperately grasp his arm, despite how futile it would be for her strength to ever overpower Sean’s.

“How can you expect me not to go murder him?” Sean growled as he did stop however momentarily, still seething with rage as he refused to look back at her.

“You can’t though, Sean” she desperately tried to make him understand, “he will see you coming. He will know your every move. He will kill you, Sean” she whispered as she continued to cling to his arm as tightly as she could.

“You honestly expect me to…”

“Sean” she began in the same pleading tone, “I truly believed that I was going to die last night. When I was forced to knock on that door; all I could think is that his wife was going to answer it, and then she was going to rip me to shreds. I honestly believed I only had seconds left to live” she sobbed as she continued to hold him tightly.

“Because of what he did to you” Sean growled further, his temper still having not cooled a fraction.

Claire simply forced herself onward, “and all I could think as I stood there waiting to die, was that I’d die with you thinking I hated you… and it was too much to bear, Sean. Knowing that I could lose you forever, and we’d never see each other again… and all while you thought I hated you… don’t let that become the truth now. Do not let me lose you now…. I can’t… I just can’t…” she finished as she fell into his arms as even more sobs wracked her body at the thought that her words could become reality if she couldn’t somehow stop him from leaving that room after all.

Sean and Claire did make it through the remainder of the evening without anyone disturbing them from where they had spent the rest of their night holding each other atop the bed until the sun forced them back to sleep again. When they awoke the following evening, on the first of February, Sean had finally regained enough of his composure to make an attempt at returning to his duties as best he could. Of course, Claire still would not let him leave the room until he swore to her that he would not risk his life, even for the sake of trying to murder that horrible man.

After Sean’s assurances and his departure from the room, Claire allowed another heavy sigh. She was still expecting Kristofer to show up at the gate at any moment demanding answers; but she was slowly beginning to fear that perhaps his wife had taken him down with her before her own death. That would be one explanation for why he had not come seeking answers after all. Not that that explanation made Claire feel even slightly better about any part of the situation as a whole.

With another sigh, she decided she would check in on Nicolas as they hadn’t spent much time together at all since Thomas had darkened their doorstep. Though she did not find him in his room, so she then attempted to talk herself into searching him out elsewhere and just hoping upon hope that she would not stumble across Thomas again. Though she supposed that if Thomas decided to torment her again that night, at least he wouldn’t be in Sean’s presence, tempting him to break his promise to her that he would refrain from any bloody encounter with the much more powerful vampire.

After checking the rest of their home, she still had not located Nicolas or any servants that had been aware of where he may have been. And with Thomas still there, that thought was not remotely comforting either. She finally forced her feet to carry her out of the house to check with the servants stationed there or to hopefully even find Nicolas attending to some duty outside. Only when she exited the house, she once again found herself cringing as Thomas moved toward the gate she now stood just inside of.

“Claire my darling, you look stunning this evening. Perhaps you should have mated with your wolf boy years ago after all” he smirked as he moved towards her, leading his favorite stallion with him as he was dressed for riding. Claire simply shook her head up at him as he led the horse past her to the gate, gesturing for a servant to open it. “You seem rather quiet tonight; at least verbally” he added with another smirk as he mounted the horse.

“Going somewhere?” Claire forced herself to ask, rather than the other million things she wanted to say to him, almost as much as she wanted to bolt from his presence once more before he got the urge to compel her into some other horrible action.

“Yes it appears that another relative of ours has found me a throne to inhabit. I guess you and Sean will have to do without my company after all” he stated as he took his seat atop the saddle.

“Someone is giving you a Princedom?” she couldn’t help asking, although she did have a sneaking suspicion of who had given him that impression since the previous night.

“Well I am a great deal more suited for the throne than some others” Thomas added with the same condescension. He then added, “and I’m sure life is bound to get even more interesting for my enemies once I take my throne.”

Claire narrowed her eyes up at him “I’m sure.”

He then looked toward the gate before looking back at her once more, “I don’t wish you to think that I haven’t enjoyed you and your husband’s glowing hospitality though. I’ve left a gift for you back at House Toreador” he told her with that ever malevolent grin which easily caused panic to cross her face.

“What sort of gift might that be?” Claire asked with an obvious fear as she cast the briefest glance toward the house in the distance.

“Well, I attempted to reshape Sean’s favorite servant into a much more interesting creation; but alas, that experiment didn’t hold up very well. But when I discovered your favorite servant; there was so much more to work with” he told her with another gleeful grin as he saw the terror in her eyes.

“You did something to Nicolas?” she whispered hoarsely as her panicked eyes moved toward the house again.

“Oh that pretty young man has had plenty done to him” Thomas chuckled, “his thoughts were the most entertaining ones I’ve seen in ages. I’ve always been quite the admirer of the Marquis de Sade; and to find one of his final two creations living right here under your roof?” he just shook his head with amazement, “that boy is the main reason why I’m letting you and Sean live. I’m that grateful that I got to meet him and see all those delicious things that de Sade had done to him, and made him do” Thomas chuckled again, “the darkness of all of those things in his head; exquisite! Art like that… being a Toreador, I just had to preserve it forever. Now he’ll have eternity to relive all of that soul shattering pain over and over. I’m sure he’ll be joining up with my kind in no time” with that he rode out through the gate with another satisfied laugh.

As Thomas rode off, Claire couldn’t stop the whimper from leaving her lips as she looked back toward the Toreador house and swallowed hard. All she could think of was if Thomas had tortured the boy even more before killing him and bringing him back; and if he would truly be a Toreador at all, or the horrible twisted version of them that Thomas seemed to be. And with the fact of all of the pain he had already endured; she knew which she feared would be most likely. Then of course there was the thought that whatever sort of creature Nicolas now was, he was of the same generation as Sean, Daniel, and Awsha; and one more powerful than her own.

Calling on all the bravery she could, Claire forced her feet toward the house. It would have been wise for her to tell Sean first she was sure; but considering the fear Nicolas already had of being anywhere near any wealthy, powerful man, she was not sure that whatever state his psyche was in at that moment would be able to keep from cracking with that added stress being introduced so soon after what had just happened to him.

A moment before she reached the door, Nicolas stumbled out of it in front of her. He was covered in blood, including the red tears that streaked his face, “Nicolas?” she whispered, almost afraid to take a step closer as she whimpered again as her heart broke for this boy who would now have an eternity to be haunted by all of that pain and torture he had just barely survived as it was.

“Je les ai tués. J’ai tué tous ...” he sobbed as his eyes found her, “Je ne pouvais pas m’arrêter. J’avais tellement faim. Et ils étaient là. Et je ne pouvais pas me contrôler. Et il a juste laissé ça arriver. Il a ri, je pense....” he added with another sob.

Translating his words in her own head, and seeing how shattered he was by his own actions, Claire forgot her own fear and moved to embrace him, holding him to her tightly as he continued to sob against her. After several long moments of holding him and letting him cry all of those tears; Claire finally let her eyes move to the still open door behind him, and the bodies of every one of Thomas’ servants laying there, all victims of the frenzy that Thomas had just gleefully let happen.