It was difficult to make any kind of accurate guess at exactly how many gunshots there had actually been from the moment they heard the first until Sean and Claire quickly moved from the office doorway to the landing above the tavern. Though, when they looked out on the scene below, the number of casualties was gut-wrenching. The bullets had thankfully stopped, but not before claiming several lives there that night. Though there was not nearly as much blood and carnage as Sean had seen in his visions of Kaleb’s massacre that claimed six lives under that roof thirty-two years earlier; however there were many more deaths this time around.

The two swallowed hard from their place overlooking the scene as their eyes moved around the room. Among the many lives lost that night were Sean’s servant who had been tending bar, nearly every one of the prostitutes in Claire’s current employ, bystanders caught in the crossfire, and the gunmen themselves. Those gunmen were apparently a small group of men working for Tobin, and the repulsive saloon owner himself. Apparently, upon opening fire on those assembled there that night, many of Claire’s regular and now blood bound customers took it upon themselves to return fire and put an end to the slaughter, with further slaughter; but putting an end to it, nonetheless.

“It was that asshole Tobin, Miss Claire” one of the customers called up to her as he holstered his still smoking gun.

Bracing herself, Claire shakily began moving down the stairs, Sean following close behind her, “were all of Tobin’s men killed too?” she made herself ask as she stepped off the bottom stair, turning her question to the man who had spoken, though her eyes continued to move around the room as she forced her composure to remain as best she could.

“Yeah, we got em all” the man confirmed as he nodded to the bodies of the men who lay riddled with bullets, their own pistols still clenched in their hands.

“I guess the drinks do work” Sean whispered in her ear with a bit of his own regret from where he leaned down behind her.

Claire just shook her head as she made herself look away from the bodies long enough to return his whisper, “and this is because of that, you know” she told him, her voice full of regret.

“They stopped them though” Sean attempted to assure.

“And I somehow doubt he’ll be the last who comes in here demanding retribution for all my alleged success” she sighed with another sad shake of her head.

As soon as the bodies were removed, Claire closed up early that night. The customers were of course none too happy to be herded from the place at just past ten, but they kept most of their complaints to themselves, all things considered. Upon locking the tavern doors, Claire sniffled and finally let go of that iron hold on her tears as she moved to get a bucket of water, a mop, some rags and a scrubbing brush from the small storage space behind the bar.

When she returned with the cleaning implements, Sean had just stepped off the stairs after having removed Sebastian’s body from the office, wrapping it in a sheet and laying it gently in the hall outside her office. “I wrapped him up and laid him in the hall for now. Did you want me to summon a servant to take him to the graveyard?”

Claire sniffled again as she wrung the water from one of the cloths for a moment or two longer than necessary before she found her voice, “he was the last, you know” she stated in a hoarse whisper, not looking back at Sean as he took a few more steps toward her, his own eyes traveling over the various pools of blood around the room.

“The last?” Sean asked her in the same quiet tone.

“The last remnant of Kristofer, other than his daughter… the werewolf” she added bitterly as she wiped at her cheek before moving to begin scrubbing at one of the bloodstains.

Sean sighed with further regret as he moved to where her tears only added to the blood she was furiously trying to wipe away, “you know I can have my servants take care of cleaning this up for you” he attempted, not sure how to offer any comfort in regards to her actual statement.

“Why? So they can get shot too the next time some other asshole comes in here pissed off at me?” Claire scoffed as she continued to scrub with some combination of anger and sadness.

Sean sighed as he squatted down near her, “I see what you’re doing Claire, and please stop. You can’t blame yourself every time some horrible thing happens.”

“Every time” she scoffed as she continued to scrub, “that just proves that horrible things always happen around me; pretty hard not to see the connection” she sniffled again as she cursed as a nail broke and simply continued to scrub vigorously.

“It’s not your fault that…” Sean attempted as another scoff from Claire cut him off.

“We both know that you’re not prone to lying, Sean; probably not a good time to try your hand at it” she muttered, and scrubbed.

Sean allowed another sad sigh as he took a moment before trying to offer any more words, “I assume you’re going to claim that it was your blood in the alcohol that is to blame for… all of this” he decided on as he gestured around the room.

“It’s hardly as much a claim as it is a fact” Claire muttered as she continued accomplishing nothing but adding soapy water to the pool of blood.

“And wasn’t it just the other night that you pointed out that without your blood things would be even worse?” Sean attempted logic, despite knowing that it would have a hard time breaking through any of that grief and guilt.

“Yeah, this is much better” she scoffed, “I’m sure Kristofer would be thrilled to know that not only did you force him to kill his wife, but helped murder his grandchild with your blood, and now I got their son murdered because of my own blood too, just to top it all off” she sniffled again. Not looking up to see Sean’s flinch at her words, “hey, maybe we should go and try to hunt down his daughter too. That way we can be responsible for the deaths of his whole fucking family once and for all” she spat out through more of those tears that were equally angry as well as sad.

Trying to force his way past her angry words, Sean spoke a moment later, “and what about the prostitutes? You’ve always been able to keep them safe and healthy because of that blood of yours. Are you going to claim that that’s some sign of your own malice as well?”

Claire scoffed again; “yeah well they’re all dead now too, aren’t they?” she bit out as another nail broke.

“Claire, would you please stop?” Sean practically was pleading at this point.

“It’s my mess, and I’ll clean it” she returned through more sobs, “I’ll clean it all the way ’til the sun comes up if I have to” she sniffled again.

“Then you better give me a cloth too; after all, I’m the one who told you to put your blood in the booze” he returned as he held a hand out to receive said cloth.

“You suggested it; I’m the one who actually did it” she argued, though weakly.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Sean finally raised his voice, “Goddammit, Claire. Why do you continually insist on hating yourself for every single thing that goes wrong in this whole entire fucked up world?”

Her sobs shaking her then, she forced some answer, “because it has to be my fault; it all has to be my fault” she forced through more tears, “it’s all my punishment for…” she stated then broke down in further sobs, still not able to admit that one sin to him. As much as she did hate herself, admitting why and making Sean hate her just as much; that would be one too many hurts for her to ever bear.

Looking over at where Claire finally let the cloth fall from her hands and moved them to her face to catch all those tears, Sean swallowed hard. He knew exactly what the end of her sentence was meant to be; though he couldn’t ever admit to that knowledge himself. He wanted so badly to tell her that she hadn’t done what she had always believed she had, but he knew that he could not admit to ever breaking her trust to find that secret out either. It would destroy the one thing that had always given them both their strength to endure eternal life; and he would not let himself take that away from her.

Instead, he moved to pull her into his arms, holding her tightly as she sobbed against him there amidst all that bloodshed that she refused to stop blaming herself for. She was completely convinced that an eternity of pain and guilt was truly what she deserved; and he had no idea what he could ever do to convince her otherwise. So he did what he could do, and he held her.

The week after the shootout brought with it Christmas and New Year’s. Not that anyone in Sean’s home was feeling very celebratory, even if they had been the type to celebrate Christmas at all. That week Sean continued to send his servants to run the saloon for Claire despite her own misgivings about returning there herself, or even keeping it open at all; it was still quite the substantial form of income for them. Financial gain aside though, Sean still came to the decision that it would cause more problems to close it down than it would to keep it open; considering the fact that it was indeed the most popular such establishment in the city whose residents now numbered over 2200, which was quite substantially more than the 131 residents the town had boasted only sixty years earlier when they had returned home to help Haven rid himself of the serpent.

As the servants ran the saloon, and Sean returned to his Princely duties; Claire remained hidden away upstairs once again, spending most of her evenings on the patio outside their chambers staring sadly out over the sea as she had been prone to doing so many times in the past. It was the last night of the year, a week after Claire had sequestered herself to their chambers, when her solitude was interrupted by a knock on the chamber door.

Claire let out a tiresome sigh as she turned her sad green eyes back to the sound. Forcing herself to step into the room from the patio, she managed a hoarse response, “what is it?”

“You have a visitor Miss Claire” the pretty young servant called from the other side of the still closed door.

Claire narrowed her eyes at that as she made her feet carry her to the door, though only opened it a crack, “what visitor?” she asked the young female servant.

“It’s a young woman who says she’s an employee of yours” the servant answered.

Claire scoffed slightly before responding, “if you mean from the tavern; I’m not really running that place anymore” Claire returned.

“She seems very upset and desperate to see you, Miss Claire” the servant continued in a small voice, “should I tell her to leave anyway though?”

Claire let out another frustrated sigh, “I assume Sean is too busy to deal with this?”

“He’s locked away in his office as usual; but the girl asked specifically for you, not Sean” the servant continued, her voice wavering at the prospect of ever having to tell one of her Kindred regnants things that they did not seem to want to hear.

Claire let out yet another sigh as she moved to pull a robe from a nearby hook, “fine, tell her to wait in the main hall” she gave in with a mumble. The young servant gave Claire a relieved smile and a slight curtsy before heading back in the direction of the stairs. Bracing herself a moment to think of the best way in which to deal with the girl, Claire finally made her feet carry her down the stairs after another long moment to tie the robe tightly around herself and force some kind of composure at the prospect of any reminder of the last time she had been at The Loft.

When Claire made her way to the ground floor, she recognized the girl as one of the few prostitutes who had managed to survive the hail of bullets a week earlier. She was just barely eighteen with long dark hair and a plain kind of prettiness. She stood at the same 5’4” as Claire but with straight brown locks that matched her somewhat sad eyes above a thin frame. Her name was Hallie and she had been with Claire since she originally gave into the idea of prostitutes working there at all, only a few months earlier.

“Miss Claire?” the girl managed an apologetic smile as she turned at the sound of her footsteps. Though Hallie’s smile seemed to cause her a bit of pain as her face was beaten and bruised, her arms held tightly around her tattered dress as though her ribs also ached with the effort it took to speak.

Claire was more than a bit caught by her appearance as she made her feet move her a few more steps toward the girl as she tried to find words, “Hallie, what happened?” Claire asked her sadly, though she had a fairly good guess, considering the girl’s occupation.

“It was one of the newer customers; the ones you usually give a good talkin to before letting them go to the rooms with us” Hallie began as she tried to hold her smile, though her voice shook as she attempted to recount the story.

“A customer did this to you?” Claire let out an even sadder sigh then.

“He was a new one; one who didn’t have the manners of the regulars” Hallie repeated as she looked down, “they never hurt me when you were there to put the fear o’ god in ’em. So I hoped it’d be ok tonight too” she finished as she stifled tears.

Claire closed her eyes tightly as she tried to bite back her own sadness for the girl, “and he hurt more than your face?” she asked as she gestured to where Hallie winced a bit as she shook, still holding her arms tight around herself.

“He kicked me a few times after he knocked me down; it’s nothin I hadn’t gotten at my old place; I guess I just started to feel safer with ’em since comin to work for you. My own stupidity, really” she sniffled as she continued to keep her eyes down.

“You got beaten this badly and walked all the way here anyway?” Claire shook her head with another sad look over at the girl as she led her to a seat on the sofa.

“I’ll heal soon enough I’m sure; ain’t hardly had any aches or illnesses since I came to your place” Hallie told her as she hesitantly took the seat and attempted to offer Claire another smile. She then addressed Claire’s question, “the others of us that’re left” she began as she sniffled again, “we all was startin to get worried that you may not be comin back at all. So they thought that if you could see what had been happenin since you left, that maybe you’d feel more inclined to come back and watch over us again?” she stammered her way through the question, almost as though afraid that it would anger Claire, but desperate to know the answer nonetheless.

The girl’s question as well as her state easily tore at Claire’s already quite fragile sensibilities of her own. She then took another moment to cast one more sad glance at the injuries the young girl had suffered in her absence. She finally braced herself and spoke again, “if those of you who are left still want to work there… then I suppose that it would be my job to get back to trying to keep you all safe after all” Claire gave in as she gently touched Hallie’s shoulder and made an attempt at her own smile, which didn’t quite make it to her lips until she saw the relief and gratitude on the young girl’s face looking back at her.