Disclaimer: Here we are. This story is now reaching the final stretch to being finished. That being said, none of the characters in this story, with the exception of Adam and Ileana do not belong to me, but to themselves. Expect a cameo appearance from Lilly Mayflower from American Satan. DUN, DUN, DUN!! Also shoutout to the movie Velvet Buzzsaw for such an awesome concept and the use of two seemingly ordinary words.

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Before she even had a second to react or even widen her eyes in shock, Ileana watched her brother be shoved up against the washing machine while Andy tackled her back into the living room, using one of his hands to pin her wrists above her head while his legs were on either side of her body. From inside the utility closet, she could clear hear Adam and Ashley fight and struggle against each other; punches being thrown and grunts of pain following. This promoted Ileana to struggle and fight against Andy with all of the vigor of a wild animal; snarling, growling, and even trying to reach up and bite him with the little bit of wiggle room that she had in her upper body. And when that failed, she maneuvered her legs to try and kick him in the chest. The vampire above her was mostly unfazed by her actions until her one of her kicks got him in between his legs and sent him sprawling backwards. Ileana moved fast, tackling Ashley from behind and biting him on his right ear; drawing blood and emitting a scream that made him stumble back until Adam was free to deliver two sucker punches to his chest and stomach until he was coughing and clutching his still bleeding ear.

As much as he wanted to get up and help his friend and stop the two ghouls from leaving, all Andy could do from his spot on the floor was groan in pain while he waited for his injured genitals to heal. For all of his inhuman strength as a vampire,certain parts of his body were still sensitive and susceptible to injury; like his genitals. And that wasn't even half of the problem. While the spell that Chris and the guys used was effective in keeping Ileana from leaving, it couldn't be sustained for extended amount of time, and by now was probably reduced to nothing. If anything, it was 0nly a temporary fix until he found something more permanent. After getting his licks in, Adam bolted for the for with his sister in tow, not even using the elevator, but just jumping down entire flights of stairs to out as much distance between them and the two vampires as possible.

Back upstairs, Andy staggered to the window only catching a brief glimpse of the two ghouls as they piled into Adam's car and peeled out of the driveway. Gritting his teeth and punching the window, Andy staggered back over to where Ashley was and looked over his ear, seeing the bite already start to heal while the blood around his neck and clothes was still fresh. The vampire in question just laid on his side and tried to let his body rest from the assault, but wore a dark grimace on his face. If Ileana wasn't so important to Andy, he would've snapped her jaw a long time ago.

"Hang in there, Ash. I'm gonna get you something to get back that lost blood". he said, reassuringly. Once the pain subsided a bit more, And y made his way to the fridge and fished out a carton of milk that contained half a gallon of o O positive blood; enough for Ashley to train his strength. Which it did as he emptied it in 4 gulps and handed the hollow carton back to Andy with a deep sigh.

"Thanks man. How're you holding up?" he asked, wiping his mouth with the side of his hand. Running a hand through his hair with a tired sigh, Andy gave a brief shrug of his shoulders before responding.

"I've had better days, to be honest. I guess that barrier finally gave out. I knew I should've asked Chris and the guys for something more permanent. The two of them are probably halfway to the city by now". Andy replied, regret evident in his voice. Ashley picked up on this and slowly rose to his feet, patting himself down to find his phone and show Andy the additional reason why he was here. Once he found it in his jacket pocket, he tapped on the screen for a bit until he found what he needed and held his phone up for Andy to see.

"Then they're sitting ducks out there. Check this out" he said.

Andy came a bit closer, reading the text in front of him before his eyes widened and grimaced in pure frustration. On BloodBook was a new post from Juliet- a short line of text followed by a picture of the kitsune and another girl he didn't recognize; with pale skin, dark lipstick, and a pixie hair cut. In the paragraph, she was tagged as @onenationunderthegun. The text itself was as follows: Getting ready for a double date with @HomecomingKing, my bestie, and her new bae. We patched things up and are getting ready to secure our future. Stay tuned for future pics.

By the time he read and reread the post two more times, it took everything that Andy had not to take Ashley's phone and chuck it at the wall. His previous grimace was now a dark scowl at the thought of what he wanted to do when he saw Juliet again. He knew that her silence was too good to be true, but now that he had confirmation there was nothing stopping him from putting the screws to her for good. But first things, first; finding Ileana before she did.

After an hour of sharp turns, running stop lights, and getting pulled over by the cops, Adam and Ileana were safe and sound back at her apartment where they were currently in front of her laptop, researching various alarms and locks that they could install on her door and windows in the worse case scenarios that Andy found out where she lived as well. And since going back to Adam's place was out of the question, there was no other way to go about it. A tense silence filled the space around them that was only broken by the clatter of Ileana's fingers flying across the keyboard, switching back and forth between tabs and comparing prices. Every now and again, Adam would give his input, but otherwise stayed quiet and stewed in his own thoughts; most notably how right Andy was about how screwed they were with a kitsune out to get them.

Well, his sister, but still. And while she'd slap the taste out of his mouth for even thinking of agreeing with Andy, Ileana needed whatever protection he could give her. There was only so much that he could by himself. Despite Adam's disposition as an independent hard ass who came from nothing to something, he was still a kid at heart. And the last thing he wanted was to lose his only remaining family due to a bout of incompetence on his part. His train of thought went uninterrupted for a while longer before it was broken by Ileana's voice.

"Okay, I think I may have found a winner", she said, pointing to a set of 4 stainless steel barrel bolt locks to put on her door for only $50 at DK Hardware.

"If I can get in contact with the landlord sometime this week, I should have the greenlight to put these on by next Tuesday". Adam gave a short nod in agreement, his words dancing on the tip of his tongue and making him purse his lips and clasp his hands together while one of his knees began to tremble. Ileana knew from past experiences, mostly bad ones, that this meant he was anxious or nervous about something that he thought would land him in trouble. Seeing this, she furrowed her brow in concern and took one of his clasped hands in her own and lovingly ran her thumb over his knuckle.

"What's wrong? Is it about what happened this morning? Look, I get that things got a bit messy, but we're here and we made it. We just need to be more careful from now on. For all of Andy's skills, he can't keep up with us and a rogue kitsune at the same time. And I doubt that Ashley is at his every beck and call to do his dirty work-"

"But what if Andy's right?" he blurted out, before he could even think to stop himself. No turning back now. As he said that, all of the color drained from Ileana's face in an expression of shock before it morphed into a grimace.

"...What was that?" she said after a tense two minutes. Taking a deep breath and preparing for the ass chewing to come, Adam turned to face his sister as though she were a one woman firing squad.

'Look, I know you hate the guy, but he was more or less right. On our own, we're pretty much sitting ducks. If this chick is out for blood, we're drastically underprepared for a fight. I mean, we don't know where it's gonna come from, when it'll happen, and more importantly, who's in on it. But if there's safety in numbers, at least we have some kind of an advantage- I'm sorry, but there it is". He explained all in one breathe. By now, Ileana was looking at him as thought he'd sprouted a chestburster that was chomping it's premature teeth at her. Such was her wide eyes and slightly gaping mouth. With each moment that ticked by, Adam could feel himself start to suffocate; to scared to break eye contact, let alone breathe properly. By now, he was wishing that his sister would do something- yell, shout, shove the laptop away- anything other than gape at him. And he got his wish when Ileana turned away from him to scoff and not to gingerly place the laptop on the table in front of them and tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. When she spoke, her words were nothing short of shocked with a tone of hurt.

"You're kidding me, right? Are you forgetting what he and his friends did to us on Halloween? They stabbed you through the neck and let you bleed out then broke into your place before snatching me up like I was the fucking Hope Diamond!" she practically shouted. Figuring that she'd react like this, Adam's rebuttal was a quick one.

"Well if that's the case, then we're gonna need all the protection we can get before this mad bitch can snatch you up too! And yeah, I hate what they did, but look- we couldn't even fight back against a pack of black magicians. And if someone like Andy has friends in high places, God only knows how many people this chick has in her corner; probably stronger than vampires and black magicians, All I'm saying is that maybe we need to look at every possibility". he explained. Feeling herself on the verge of exploding, Ileana stood up and started to pace back and forth, unable to make eye contact with her brother; the one person that she had left in her corner who was now telling her to consider taking up with the very person who put her in this predicament to begin with. Figuring that he'd already dug his grave once he opened his mouth, Adam saw no reason to stop now. But Ileana beat him to the punch, stopping in her tracks and crossing her arms in front of her.

"How about I give a possibility? Get out" she said, venomously. Now it was Adam's turn to look shocked at his sister's words.

"Are you kidding me?" he asked, sounding incredulous. While it wasn't a completely farfetched response, he was half expecting her to fight him a bit more; but one look at her face- at how dark her eyes had gotten coupled with the dep set frown on her face told Adam that it was in his best interest to do as he was told lest another bloodbath ensues. With a scoff and shake of his head, Adam rose to his feet, shot one more disappointed look at his sister before making for the door and out of the apartment, surveying the area with careful eyes before making for his car; even checking his back seats for anyone who may have broke in. God forbid that those guys took down his plates when they dropped him off at his place.

The drive back to his place was a quiet but tense one for Adam that had him contemplating if things would be different had their parents not died. Would there be Cara? Would there be Andy? Not that there was no real way to answer either question; but still, with their current predicament there was no way for him not to ask himself. And it's not like this was the first fight he'd had with Ileana that left one of them storming out in a huff. Yet, the last thing that he wanted for this one to drive a wedge between the two of them after what happened last night. If he were a betting man, he was sure that that's what Andy his friends wanted. To which, Adam made a mental note to text his sister tomorrow once she cooled down and offer a portion of the "groceries" that he planned to get.

Cooling down for the older ghoul meant eating whatever was left over in her fridge before curling up in bed for the rest of the day, even calling out sick to work tomorrow. The next day began in earnest with Ileana still curled up in bed, only getting up to use the bathroom while Adam got off from a half day at work; thankful that he hadn't run into John and was about to go to his usual haunt where at least one homeless person was bound to be. He was in luck and managed to snag a drunkard who was passed out up against the dumpster; pressing his switchblade up against their neck and letting it sink in deeply, creating a river of blood that had them widening their eyes in pain and gasping for life before dropping their head in a dead heap. Just as he prepared to haul the body to his car, he was approached by a woman who after one whiff in her direction was undoubtedly a ghoul- something that she confirmed herself when her eyes turned to that particular black and grey that he knew all too well. But she was also a ghoul that he didn't recognize from either Ileana or Cara's circles with a pixie hair cut, dark lipstick, and a few piercings in her ears.

"Hey, stranger need a hand with that?" she asked, coolly.

Fast Forward a few hours and Ileana was now on her couch wit a soup bowl full of eyeballs and blood in her lap while The Shining played on the TV in front of her. Just as it gets to the part where Danny spells out Red Rum on the door, her phone vibrates from on the coffee table with Adam's name flashing across her screen. By now, she was calm and level headed enough to carry on a conversation with him and reached for her phone with languid movements.

"Hey, what's up?" she sked. But the voice that replied on the other end was not what she was expecting.

"Hey yourself, Lana", a female voice said with a tone that was akin to a velvet buzz saw. Soft and comforting, but cutting and lethal all at once.Something that that made Ileana furrow her brow in confusion and slight anger.

"Who the hell is this?", she asked, a hard edge in her tone of voice. But the voice on the other end payed no mind to this and kept talking.

"A friend if of a friend. Maybe you've heard of me". she replied. And just like that, all of the pieces came together and collapsed around her like a game of Jenga as Ileana's eyes widened in pure ,unfiltered shock before her next words came out with a hint of fear behind them.

"Juliet?", she said.