Alain let out a small murmur as he stirred awake, his sleep having been disturbed by someone's breath on his face. As he opened his eyes, he found himself face-to-face with Sable, who was staring back at him.

"Hey," he said softly. "How'd you sleep?"

"...Better than I have in a long time," she admitted. "You?"

"The same, honestly." Alain paused. "...Listen. What happened last night, all the kissing-"

Immediately, the thin smile Sable had been wearing faded. "You're not going to tell me that now isn't the right time, are you?"

"What? No. I was going to ask if we could do it again."

Sable paused, a small blush crossing her face. "...Oh. Um…"

Alain's only response was to roll his eyes, then lean in and plant a small kiss on her lips. Sable flinched at the sudden sensation, but didn't pull away. The two of them held the kiss for several seconds before Alain finally broke it, his mouth curling up into a smile.

"Just like I thought," he mused. "It's better when I can actually see how red you get from it."

Sable glared at him. "...Whatever you say, Alain."

Before he could say anything else, she suddenly threw the covers off herself. Alain's eyes widened when he realized he could see everything before she abruptly stood up and turned her back towards him, leaving him staring at just her backside. Despite himself, he couldn't help but swallow nervously, even as he felt his face begin to light up.

Sable, for her part, cast a glance at him from over her shoulder before giving him a smirk.

"Now who looks red?" she teased.

"...Not fair," Alain complained.

"You of all people ought to know by now that I never play fair. Now you know for a fact that I treat matters of the heart the same way I treat everything else."

She bent down and picked up her clothes, once again giving him a full view for a second before standing upright again. Alain felt his blush intensify, though it soon faded when she began to dress herself.

"Damn…" he muttered.

"What was that?" she asked as she finished pulling her clothes on.

"I was just thinking to myself that I could have used a bit more of a show."

"Play your cards right and you just might get one later," Sable teased. "Come on. Let's go see if Az and Danielle are awake."

Alain nodded, then climbed out of bed and followed after Sable as she stepped into the main room. Sure enough, both Az and Danielle were there, seated at an old kitchen table. They had what appeared to be US Army rations in front of them; Az was eating his without complaint, but Danielle was eyeing hers as if someone had just served her a dead skunk on a plate. The moment Alain and Sable stepped into the room, however, the two of them looked up.

And to Alain's annoyance, both of them smirked widely.

"Don't say anything," Alain warned.

"Why, whatever do you mean, Alain?" Az asked.

"Come on, Az. Don't act like I don't know exactly what you were thinking."

"I was merely going to suggest that you two might want to be more careful in the future. After all, to my knowledge, vampire and human relations have never led to a natural-born child between the two, but that is no reason to assume it cannot happen."

Sable let out a sigh as she shook her head, then turned towards Danielle. "Alright. He got one shot in, so I suppose it's only fair that you get to take one as well."

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Danielle blinked in surprise. "...Seriously? You're just giving me one?"

"Indeed. Use it well."

Danielle blinked again. "...Nothing comes to mind, admittedly."

"Come on, you can't be serious," Alain chastised. "Az thought of something off-the-cuff. You really have nothing funny or insightful to say?"

Danielle thought for a moment. "How was the sex?"

Alain gave her a deadpan look, and she bristled. "You put me on the spot, okay? What else was I supposed to ask?"

"If you both must know," Sable interjected, "there was no sex… not yet, at least. We… kept it mostly to merely kissing, for now."

"Oh, my," Az commented, fanning himself for dramatic effect. "My lady, that is quite unlike you. And with a lowly human, no less. How scandalous."

"Oh, so I'm lowly now, am I?" Alain challenged.

Sable crossed her arms. "Yes, yes, get your punches in while you still can. Of course you both realize this can only benefit me in the long run, yes? When Alain and I finally lay together for real, it will make your jeers much less effective."

"So, is that what's happening?" Danielle questioned. "You two are an item now?"

"I guess you could say that," Alain mused. "We are taking it kind of slow, though."

Danielle let out an amused snort at that. "Slow, he says… to hell with that, if you ask me. We could die at any moment."

"I'm aware. This is just what we're both comfortable with."

"Whatever you say."

Alain just shook his head, then approached the kitchen table. "So, what's on the menu?"

"Looks like the only food Heather had stockpiled were these old Army rations," Az noted. "That and some kind of stale biscuit. I'm not sure what those are; whatever they're made of, they were almost too hard even for me to bite through. Almost."

"That would be hardtack," Alain noted. "And I'm not surprised that's all she has here. We'll have to make the most of it, at least until someone stops by with something fresh."

"Eugh…" Danielle said with a shudder as she picked up her fork again. "This stuff tastes disgusting… if I didn't know any better, I'd say I was eating feet wrapped in a layer of rancid sauerkraut…"

Alain's brow furrowed. "Look, I understand it's not appetizing to you, but let's not go describing it like that, okay? Because that makes it sound disgusting to me as well, and I also have to eat it."

Sable settled into the seat next to him and sniffed the air, her nose scrunching up as she did so. "I am inclined to agree with Danielle on this one," she noted. "Never have I been more glad than now that I subsist off of human blood."

"Can't believe I'm saying this, but that sounds nice right about now," Alain said as he dove into his ration, shuddering as he took his first bite. "I legitimately can't even tell what I'm eating right now."

"Well," Danielle began, "if the taste is any indication-"

"Don't."

She didn't say anything further, instead doing her best to continue choking down her ration along with Alain. Az, meanwhile, ate his without difficulty or complaint. Finally, after several minutes, Alain had eaten as much as he could stomach, and pushed the rest of his plate over to Az.

"Here," he said. "You probably need it more than I do, anyway."

Az gave him a grateful nod, then continued eating. Alain, meanwhile, leaned back in his chair.

"How long are we stuck here for?" he asked as he stared up at the ceiling.

"Good question," Sable noted.

His brow furrowed. "Terrible answer."

"You asked, and nobody here truly knows how long it'll be. I'd be surprised if someone knocks on that door any sooner than, say, three days from now."

At that moment, there was a knock at the door. Immediately, they all paused for a second before Alain looked over towards Sable, one eyebrow raised.

"You were saying?" he asked.

"Alain, it's me," Heather announced from behind the door. "Open up, would you?"

"No offense, mother, but this is your safe house," he noted. "Do you not have a key?"

"I have a number of safe houses around here, and I'm not about to go diving into my pocket and rooting around for the proper key to one of them," she growled. "Open the damn door, please?"

Alain let out a small sigh and stood up, then marched over to the door and unlocked it.

"Honestly, mother-"

He was forced to cut himself off mid-sentence as the door came flying open and Heather stepped inside, hefting a large burlap sack over her shoulder. Before he could ask what she was carrying, Heather stopped in the middle of the room and tossed the sack onto the ground.

And to Alain's surprise, the sack let out a muffled grunt.

He stared at it for a moment before turning back towards his mother. "...The rest of us don't need to vacate the premises for you, do we?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Heather demanded.

"It means I'm not about to find out I've got a new father, right?"

She rolled her eyes. "Just lock the door, please."

Alain obliged, closing and locking the door. Heather, meanwhile, cleared her throat.

"I decided to do a little information gathering of my own," she announced. "You mentioned that the one who fed you that phony tip about the bar was a detective? Well, I did some asking around to try and see if I could find him."

Alain's eyes widened. "You did?"

Heather's only response was to draw her knife, then cut the rope holding the burlap sack together. It fell apart, revealing the detective Alain had met at the hotel. He was bound and gagged, and looked more than a bit disheveled, but it was definitely him.

"Detective Douglas Wayneright," Heather greeted, stretching her arms out. "Here we are, in one of my humble abodes. Care to start talking now, or do I need to loosen your tongue a little bit?"

She brought the knife around as the words left her mouth. Douglas eyed the blade with no small amount of fear. Alain, for his part, let out a tired sigh.

"I'm guessing he didn't tell you anything?" he asked.

Heather let out a huff. "Of course not. All these people are the same – they think they're hard enough to resist anything you can throw at them. Their tunes generally change after I've taken a testicle or two."

"She's kidding," Alain hurriedly assured Douglas, who'd started to panic and thrash against his bonds. He blinked, then turned towards his mother. "...You were kidding, right?"

Heather grinned at him, but didn't answer the question. Instead, she knelt down and ripped the gag from Douglas' mouth.

"Talk," she commanded. "And whatever you say had better be useful, otherwise I'm going to practice my knifework on you."

"Alright, alright!" Douglas shouted out. "Jesus Christ… you're the scariest lady I've ever met…"

"Sounds like you meet a lot of those," Alain commented.

"Just two so far."

"Two…?" Sable echoed. "Did one of them look similar to me?"

Douglas turned towards her, his eyes widening. "Yes. Christ alive, I knew you both were sisters, but that kind of resemblance is downright uncanny…"

"Enough games," Sable growled, as she stood up and marched towards him. "Let's not mince words, human – you are in deep trouble and my patience has already worn thin just from you being associated with my sister. If you know anything about what she has planned-"

"I-I do, actually!" Douglas managed to get out, despite the fact that his whole body was trembling. "She… she paid me to feed you guys some false information; try and draw you out. I don't know what her plans were for you, but whatever the case, I was supposed to be the middleman for it."

"Anything else?" Heather urged. "Come on, you can do better than that. I mean, for your sake, I hope you can; I've been meaning to practice getting better at Five Finger Fillet, and I'd rather not use my own hand for it."

Douglas swallowed nervously. "Okay, okay… so there's this old house on the outskirts of town-"

At that moment, there was a large explosion outside, loud enough that it rocked the abandoned apartment building they were all staying in. Dust fell from the ceiling, and they all struggled to maintain their footing. Outside, it was as if a thick cloud had suddenly settled over the sky, blocking the sun from view; the world around them darkened, and Alain froze.

He wasn't surprised when the screaming began a few seconds later.

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