Merle wakes back in Darius's bed. Great red spidering shapes of her blood are staining the linen everywhere. She feels light-headed. Darius is crouched over her, nude and holding an apple in his hand.
'Take care, Magdalena. Don't sit up yet. Eat. I don't want to deplete you completely.'
She grasps the apple gratefully and takes a large bite. She's ravenous. But as she eats, she can't help staring at Darius's beautiful naked body.
'You can't still want more from me, Magdalena,' he says. But his voice is thick and heavy with desire.
She sits up and kisses him, her mouth still full of apple flesh, but he pulls back, wiping his mouth with his hand, his features wrinkling in disgust. 'You taste of food,' he says. 'Let me make you taste of something far sweeter.' And he's already digging in his drawer for a fresh razor blade.
That evening Merle excuses herself.
She's been naked all day and her clothes feel alien as she pulls them over her skin. She goes down a flight of stairs and then wanders down the corridor looking for Kristina's room. Three doors down from her own, her knock is met with a cry of 'Come in'.
Kristina's room is a mess. But underneath the flurry of clothes and bed sheets and what appeared to be ripped up soft toys is a room as smartly sumptuous as Merle's own. Kristina sits on the bed, holding a glass of black liquid in her hand. She grins at Merle.
Merle stares at the content of the glass. 'Is that it? Is that the draft?'
Kristina nods. 'Well it's not my night cap, is it?'
Merle starts to cross to the bed. 'And if I drink it ...'
'You'll find it easier to see through his lies. It'll keep him out of your head. What he's done by persuasion, well, that can't be undone, but where he's twisted your mind deliberately to entice you to believe his lies. That'll go.'
Merle reaches out and takes the glass. She pauses. 'I don't know.'
Kristina holds her gaze. 'If everything he says is true, you'll still be his after you've drunk it.'
Merle inhales and raises the glass to her lips. But just as it touches them she freezes. Her hand suddenly jerks and she throws the glass across the room. It smashes against the wall. Confused, she whirls around to see Darius standing in the doorway. He is across the room before she's even properly registered him, diving onto the bed, pining Kristina down, pulling out a stake. Merle blinks, looking again at the black liquid dripping down the wall. She's still astounded at how easily he took control of her body. She's never seen him do anything like that. What is he? His powers are frightening.
On the bed, Kristina is screaming, terrified as Darius holds the stake to her heart. 'No, no, no.'
Darius looks up at Merle. 'You can't trust her,' he says, 'she slipping from my control.' He turns back to Kristina. 'Aren't you?'
'Merle, make him stop,' Kristina screams. 'Tell him. He'll listen to you.'
'No,' Darius snaps, 'she'll listen to you. Tell her. Tell her what you just tried to give her.'
Kristina starts sobbing, beginning again her chorus of, 'No, no, no. Darius, please. I saved you from them, Darius. Without me ...'
'Tell her,' he snaps, interrupting her. 'What did you just try and make her drink.'
'Death,' sobs Kristina.
'Death?'
'Death,' says Darius. 'Poison. It's poisonous to humans. Black Emeralds like Kristina and Oberon drink it like a liqueur. They find it amusing. Don't you?'
Kristina – still sobbing – nods.
Darius lowers his mouth to Kristina's ear. 'You remember what I promised you your next punishment would be?'
Kristina nods again.
'Well, we've moved a long way past that now.' He lifts the stake.
'No, Darius, not me. Never me. I love you.'
Darius lifts the stake higher above Kristina's heaving chest, poised to strike.
'No!' Merle is shaking as hard as either of the vampires.
Darius pauses, but he turns on her with livid eyes. 'She tried to kill you, Merle. For the second time. What am I to do? Keep on forgiving her until she finally manages it?'
Merle looks at Kristina's terrified face. 'I just, just want to know why. What did I ever ...?' she walks over to the bed and sit down next to where Kristina is lying, pinned under Darius's thighs. 'Please, Kristina, why?'
Kristina narrows her eyes. 'You know why.'
'Because you're in love with him? Because you're jealous?'
Kristina nods.
'But you know that he doesn't love you, right?'
'He should,' Kristina says, her voice cracking to more tears. 'He's just some filthy feral thing and I saved him.'
'How did you save him?'
'I brought him blood. Oberon was starving him. It helped to control his psych-powers to limit the amount of blood he got. But he looked so wretched. I brought him some extra plasma packs. I didn't know then what it would do. But that's how he broke loose. Because of me. And he killed everyone. And now I don't have anything – anyone – left except him. And he doesn't even care.'
Kristina stops talking and rolls her face away. Merle looks up at Darius. 'Come on,' she says to him, 'let's leave her. You don't need to punish her. You've already punished her enough.'
'No I haven't,' Darius says and he thrusts the stake right into Kristina's screaming chest.
In bed, Merle says, 'Where is Oberon?'
'In the dungeon. I know I ought to kill him too. But it's so hard to give him the peace he denied me.'
The coolness in Darius's voice makes Merle shiver. 'Has he been down there long?'
'About ten days. I shut him down there for making Kristina put you back in the cells. I don't know why I even keep letting him out. I just get rather overwhelmed sometimes by the reality of him being down there suffering as I did ... And I let him out again, until he tries something.' Darius shrugs, looking strangely sheepish.
'If you can't kill him Darius, I will.'
'Oh, Magdalena,' Darius says, rolling over on top of her and dipping his head to open up one of the wounds on her neck.