After hearing Claire finally tell him about the twelve deaths that had happened in under two months’ time, Sean had to bite back his immediate response of ‘if you had only told me…’ He knew that that response would do nothing but add to the guilt that had kept Claire from turning to him for help at all. It seemed that she wanted desperately to solve the problem herself, without burdening Sean with her misfortunes… or her feelings. He couldn’t fault her for wanting to feel as though she could do something without his help; though it still worried him that she had always confided in him about other troubles. After all, Sean had always felt that the point of having someone next to you for eternity was that you would not have to deal with tragedies alone.

Sean did believe that he could have put an end to the deaths if Claire had simply told him when the first murder had happened and had let him use his abilities to discover the culprit. However, he knew that pointing that out to her would drive her that much deeper into that guilt that had been swallowing her whole for nearly 300 years. Instead, he chose to comfort her as best he could until she had at least achieved some semblance of calm; as calm as she even could be in the wake of such needless loss of life.

When he did finally leave their chambers that night, he subtly grabbed the key ring from the pocket of Claire’s coat which was hanging in its usual spot near the door of the room. He then determinedly made his way downstairs and past his office door, instead heading out of the home to go and discover the guilty party once and for all. Unfortunately his discovery would not actually bring the dead back, but he was intent on seeing that justice be served and any more deaths be prevented as well.

When he arrived at the door of the tavern, it was to find a pale, dark haired woman leaning impatiently back against the wall. It took her a long moment to compose herself in the face of his type of presence. Though, eventually she and Sean both gave one another skeptical looks as she found her voice, “don’t think they’re opening today” she greeted him, “I’ve been waiting here since ten; seems Claire hasn’t bothered showing up to unlock the place. Lots of other pissed off customers been by though” she added wryly.

“Seems there have been a few less employees to run things lately” Sean told her in an even tone as he moved to unlock the door, keeping her in his peripheral vision.

“You have keys? I haven’t seen you working here before” she added as she gave him a questioning look as he pushed open the door.

“I don’t work here” Sean told her plainly, keeping her in his gaze as he gestured for her to pass through the doors in front of him.

“So how come you have keys and you’re here instead of Claire then?” she asked him skeptically as she slowly stepped through the door, keeping Sean in her gaze as well.

“Because I own the place” Sean told her simply as he locked the doors behind them once more.

The young woman seemed a bit caught by both his words and his locking of the door behind the two of them there alone in the dark tavern that night. She swallowed a moment as Sean moved to light the nearest lamp, seeming to be a bit self-satisfied by imparting wisdom that she was unaware of previously.

“I thought Claire owned the place” she stated as she watched him, her hand inadvertently moving to the gun holstered on her hip.

“I suppose that’s true enough; but I did buy the place for her” Sean stated, trying not to smirk at the hand she had moved to the gun as the tiniest bit of nervousness began chipping at the edges of the awe Sean inspired in all mortals who were treated to his company.

“Wait, you’re Claire’s husband?” she asked as she allowed the slightest smile at that information.

“That I would be” he told her simply.

She then smiled again, seeming somehow pleased by that information, “so has she decided to let you run the place from now on… for some reason?” she couldn’t help adding.

“Claire doesn’t even know I’m here right now” he admitted, which caused her smile to widen at that knowledge as well. He then added in a pointed tone “does anyone know you’re here?”

She narrowed her eyes a bit at the manner in which he asked her such, but after quickly moving her eyes over him and finding that he had no weapon of his own, her smile returned, “not yet.”

“So I guess it’s just the two of us” Sean stated in the same calculated tone.

She couldn’t help smirking, “and what are you planning to do about that?”

“I could ask you the same thing” Sean returned in the same emotionless tone.

“You’re the one that invited me through the doors” she continued smirking up at where he stood a good nine inches taller than her. Though despite that awe he inspired, she managed to retain some confidence in the belief that she and her gun were the ones who had the upper hand there that night.

“You’re the one who was waiting outside all day” he returned without pause.

“I was waiting on Claire” she shrugged as she continued to hold him in her gaze, her hand still resting on the gun at her side.

“Lucky for you, I’m more than capable of delivering a message to her for you” Sean offered, though his tone was cool.

“Or maybe you could actually be the message” she smirked again.

“Or maybe you could be” Sean retorted with the same confidence.

She scoffed slightly, “meaning?”

“So, what message do you have in mind, honestly?” Sean answered with his own question, despite the fact that he didn’t actually need her to tell him why she was there. Though he was quite curious to see what she would be willing to tell him since she so obviously held the false belief that she had the advantage there with her little gun.

She scoffed again, “I must admit, you and your wife do share the same steel set of nerves.”

“Is there a reason I should be nervous?” Sean returned her scoff.

“We’re all alone without anyone even knowing where we are; who knows what could happen?” she told him wryly, finding herself having to will that confidence in the light of his magnetism, just the way she had had to do on the night she had threatened Claire; back before all those Claire cared about mysteriously started meeting their ends.

“Oh I know exactly what’s going to happen” Sean told her, and then added in the same pointed tone, “I’m just curious to know what you think is going to happen.”

She let out another chuckle to cover her disbelief at his complete lack of fear that Claire had shown her on their first meeting as well. Though Claire had no fear because she honestly didn’t seem to care if she lived or died. She still was unclear on why this man was showing none either; as she was getting more of a confident vibe from him than the melancholy one that Claire wore like a second skin.

With another scoff she found an answer, “and what do you know is going to happen?”

“What would be the fun in telling you that? Watching you squirm as you slowly come to realize what’s going to happen seems much more entertaining” he told her with the same coldness.

“That almost sounded like some kind of threat” she told him, forcing confidence into her voice and reminding herself again that she was the one with the gun.

“You’re the one with your hand on the gun” Sean told her with an unconcerned shrug.

“So you did notice that then?” she replied, trying to maintain her volume.

“Of course I noticed you waiting here alone at night with a gun saying you wanted to see my wife. Now I’d just like to hear you explain yourself” he told her in the same monotone.

“Explain myself?” she scoffed again.

“I’m waiting” he told her simply as he took a seat and gestured for her to take her own.

“You and Claire really do belong together. Neither of you has any clue how you should speak to someone with a gun” she stated with a slight glare.

“Come on, here’s your chance to explain once and for all why you feel the need to pull guns on people you don’t even know. You obviously have some kind of problem with Claire and now me apparently too. Don’t you want us to know why it is that you feel so wronged by us in some way?” Sean asked her as he crossed his arms over his chest impatiently, much the way Claire had done when they had had their own face off two months earlier.

She scoffed again as she angrily kicked another chair out from the nearest table and took a seat, “I don’t know why I should even bother talking to you; Claire’s the one I have a message for.”

Sean’s impatience then finally got to him as he shook his head, “fine, I suppose I could tell you why you’re here. That could be entertaining too.”

“Tell me why I’m here?” she scoffed again.

“That asshole Tobin was your father, wasn’t he, Ilana?” Sean began, smirking at her reaction to him offering her that information.

“Not sure how you found that out, but it doesn’t matter; you should really be careful of using words like that when you’re talkin about someone’s dearly departed… especially when they have a gun pointed at you” she retorted, having moved the gun from its holster upon taking the seat.

“He dragged your brothers in here and had them help him shoot a bunch of innocent people just because he couldn’t take the fact that this place was more popular than his own. I’d say that’s the very fucking definition of an asshole” Sean told her bluntly as he moved his elbows to his knees and slid forward in his seat rather than shrinking back at the sight of that pistol pointed his way.

Forcing herself not to pull the trigger right that moment, Ilana had to retort “when they died, me and my mother had no choice but to whore ourselves just to eat; and then the man who owned us and beat us ended up eventually beating my mother to death. I’d say that’s a pretty good fucking reason to want to put that pretty little bitch wife of yours in her place!” she finished with a combination of rage and hurt.

Sean just shook his head over at her, “it’s not Claire’s fault that your piece of shit father and brothers couldn’t bear to be outshone by a woman. And coming in here guns blazing, despite the fact that they may not come out of it alive; that was that prick’s call. And as sad as it is that you and your…”

But before Sean finished his sentence, that anger got the best of Ilana and made her fingers begin shaking badly enough to squeeze that trigger after all. Wincing as the bullet pierced his ribcage, Sean brought his cold blue eyes up to hers with an even colder rage then.

Before she even had time to react to the bullet tearing through Sean’s torso, he moved toward her in a flash of motion. It was less than a second before she felt his hand over hers, breaking her fingers with the strength of his grip and causing the gun to clatter to the wooden floor as she shrieked in pain.

“What the fuck are you?” she choked through the pain as he continued to clamp those shattered fingers of hers in his own, not letting up despite her dropping the gun and the pain his grip continued to inflict on her.

“Someone who’s a lot harder to kill than the thirteen people you already murdered; bad luck for you I’d say” he growled. With a final cold glare down into her terrified and pain-filled eyes, he added “just make sure that your last thought is how badly mistaken you were to think that killing people who my wife cares about was ever a good idea in any way.” And with that, he sunk his fangs into her neck, delivering the justice to her that was long overdue.

When Sean returned home, he was greeted by the startled looks of servants who rushed to his aid upon seeing the bullet hole and the vast amount of blood on his clothes. Though he only waved them away as he slowly moved up the stairs, more troubled by having to explain the night’s events to Claire than he was by the already healed bullet wound. Bracing his shoulders, he pushed open the door to their room as Claire centered widened green eyes on him and immediately pushed herself up out of her seat as she took in his appearance.

“What on earth happened?” she choked out the question, rushing to his side as the door fell shut behind him.

“I just got a little bit shot” he murmured as he wrapped his arm around her, moving with her to the sofa.

“Shot?” she practically squeaked the word as they sat. “Explain!” she ordered worriedly.

“Calm down. It’s already healed” he assured her.

Claire simply gave him a scolding look, all the worry still present, “explain” she repeated.

“I went to check on the tavern since no one was there and…”

“Check on?” she interrupted, easily aware that there was more to it than that.

“And I wanted to find out what happened, of course” he confessed before continuing, “and the bitch that pulled the gun on you was waiting there when I showed up.”

“What?” she choked on that question as well, “Ilana was there?”

“Guess she came to gloat” Sean scoffed as he removed his arm from her shoulders to slowly begin unbuttoning the bloodied shirt.

“Gloat?” Claire asked in the same raspy tone, her eyes never leaving Sean.

“She was looking for you. Probably wanted to see how you were dealing with having every single one of your employees murdered in under two months” he shrugged with a slight sigh.

“So, you’re saying that Ilana was the one who murdered them all?” Claire whispered.

“Apparently Tobin and her brothers were the ones who shot the place up back in 1850; and killed Sebastian” he added with a sigh as he pulled the blood soaked shirt down his arms where the remaining bullet hole was now nothing but a slightly reddened mark surrounded by drying blood.

Claire needed a long moment before the entirety of the situation sunk in, “and then she shot you?” she finally whispered.

“I guess she didn’t like me calling her dad and her brothers assholes” he shrugged again as he dropped the shirt to the floor and pushed disheveled blonde locks from his face.

Claire let out a sad scoff, “and your reaction to her shooting you…” she made herself ask, her voice breaking.

“How would you react if she had actually shot you?” Sean asked her plainly, deliberately postponing having to admit out loud to that reaction.

“I probably would have just let her think she killed me” she added softly as she cast her eyes down, afraid of what Sean’s answer actually would be.

“I think the pain of the bullet might cause a slightly different reaction; speaking from experience and all” he replied with a sad sarcasm.

Another long moment before Claire found any more words, “so, you killed her?” she made herself state out loud. Sean simply nodded, with his eyes cast down. At that moment Claire was honestly not sure at all how she truly felt knowing that Sean had deliberately taken a human life that very night; despite how much that human truly did deserve her fate after all.