Damien sat next to the bedroom door. His room was identical to Nick and Trubel's with the only difference being its location in the compound. As he had already done a handful of times, he reached behind himself to pull the door handle and found, without surprise, that it was still locked. Shouldn't someone have come to let him out by now?

He thought about how Nick and Trubel must be hungry. He definitely was... or would be if it weren't for the anxious nausea that twisted his insides. What was going on? He didn't have a good feeling.

Damien wasn't without answers for long. Miles let himself into the room and looked around for Damien until he found him sitting on the floor.

"Having fun?" Miles asked sarcastically.

Damien rose to his feet and wondered if he should just open the door now that it was unlocked and walk away; he wasn't in the mood for fighting with Miles.

"You look like you are," Damien said grumpily.

"I am," Miles confirmed proudly.

"Is it anything I should know about?" Damien questioned. Whenever Miles was this happy it was because he did something most people would find disgusting and sadistic. In Damien's mind, he wondered, "What is it, this time?"

Miles smirked tauntingly. "Only if you're interested in Trubel."

Damien was done dancing around the topic that Miles had clearly come to tease him with. "What did you do?" Damien asked seriously, scowling at Miles.

"Something you're not going to like," Miles informed him wickedly. "It's why you've been locked up all day. We've got to keep an eye on you," Miles added playfully. "Since you've decided to get close to her, after all."

"Tell me!" Damien ordered him aggressively, getting in Miles's face.

"Or what?" Miles asked with enjoyment. "You're going to fight me? Remember, you're not the hot-shot you think you are."

"Go to hell," Damien hissed. His skin rippled; between the waves, tufts of orange hair faded in and out. Damien breathed deeply to calm himself and was able to keep his human form. He knew he wasn't going to get any answers as long as Miles was having fun toying with him. He decided not to play Miles's game and sat back down on the floor where he had been sitting earlier. Maybe Miles would get bored and tell him what was going on...

"Giving up so soon?" Miles asked with amusement.

"Yep," Damien said indifferently.

"I guess you don't love her as much as I thought you did," Miles continued to taunt in an attempt to get under Damien's skin.

Damien ignored him.

"I guess it won't matter to you that I locked her in a casket," Miles said, shrugging and turning to head out the door. Damien's head snapped up to stare at Miles in shock. Miles locked eyes with him and smiled at his success in getting Damien's attention.

Damien rose to his feet again and had to fight ten times harder to keep his human features intact than he had earlier. "What?!" Damien growled.

Miles didn't answer him. Instead, he opened the door and started walking into the hallway. Damien grabbed his arm and pulled him back into the room. "You're going to leave and let her out," Damien told Miles in a threatening tone.

Miles pulled his arm back and let it snap forward, punching Damien in the face. Damien fell to the ground and put his hand over his face instinctively to catch the blood that was already dripping onto the ground.

"I will," Miles agreed. "After twelve hours."

Miles left the room. Damien cursed to himself and picked himself off the ground.

*************

Adalind and Eve both glanced in the direction of the front door after hearing someone knock.

"Sean wouldn't knock," Adalind told Eve anxiously.

Eve was already on her feet, her thoughts heading in the same direction as Adalind's. Renard was with Hank and Wu, and so was Farris. Monroe and Rosalee would have called, right? Which means that they wouldn't know whoever was at the door.

"Should we answer it?" Adalind asked.

"Call Renard," Eve ordered. "And go find Diana. I'm going to see who it is."

Adalind followed Eve's instructions as more knocking came at the door.

Eve walked quickly toward the front of the house and, through the glass of the door saw a young woman with an anxious expression standing on the other side. Eve opened the door slowly and quickly asked, "Can I help you?" in a less-than-friendly tone.

"Yeah, um, hi," the young woman studdered worriedly. "I'm sorry to bother you. I was housesitting down the street," she said, pointing to a house in the distance. "And I accidentally let the cat outside. Have you seen it?"

"What did it look like?" Eve asked. She watched the woman wrack her brain for a description. That was a red flag. Shouldn't she know what the cat looked like?

"Um, it's kind of speckled with all kinds of colors," the woman said.

"Is it a tortoiseshell cat?" Eve asked.

"Yes!" the woman said, ready to agree with whatever Eve said.

"Is it a male or a female?" Eve asked.

The woman paused for a long second before she said, "Male. Have you seen him?"

Since Eve was a veterinarian in her past life, she knew a thing or two about cats. She knew, for example, that tortoiseshell cats were exclusively female, unless they had Klinefelter syndrome, or in plain English, XXY chromosomes instead of XX chromosomes which was exceedingly rare.

"No, I'm sorry," Eve apologized quickly, attempting to shut the door. She wanted to warn Adalind about the suspicious woman.

The woman caught the door with her hands and pulled it back open to stop Eve's retreat. "Please," she begged, still in character. "I could get in a lot of trouble if I don't find it."

"I can't help you," Eve said more sternly, prepared to pull the door shut again.

The woman smiled now and said, "Oh, I think you can." Seconds later, she was transformed into a Manticore with her scorpion-like tail poised to strike Eve if she dared to move.

Eve didn't waste any time and woged into her Hexenbiest form. She took a step toward the Manticore, causing the ground to shudder and sending the Manticore flying away from the house, into the street. It was a good thing there were no witnesses around.

The Manticore woman was clearly shaken but was back up on her feet in seconds. Eve wasn't about to let the woman come any closer to the house and decided that the best way to accomplish the task was to kill her. Eve focused on the woged woman, and without the woman's permission, her own scorpion stinger inched its way closer to her throat. Eve knew from experience that the best way to kill Manticores was to give them a taste of their own medicine.

The woman was moments away from having her stinger pierce her neck when suddenly, the pressure was released, and she was able to control her own tail again. She looked up and watched Eve collapse in a Quijada Vil's arms. The man dropped the syringe he had been holding and beckoned his Manticore partner to come inside the house as he laid Eve on the ground.

"Cutting it a little close," the Manticore woman disapproved grumpily.

"You look fine to me," the man complained. He and the woman looked down at Eve's sleeping body. "One down, two to go," the man said.

"What do we do with this one?" the woman asked, gesturing to Eve.

"We make sure she doesn't wake up prematurely," the man said. "We have work to do. Come on."

They heard the back door open, admitting all of the other occupants that had been waiting in the van aside from the Gedachtnis Esser who remained outside.

"Now we wait," the woman announced. The others took her statement as if it were an order and scattered to find hiding places in the house. Adalind would have to come downstairs eventually.

*************

Adalind felt the house shake, unaware that it had been caused by Eve throwing a Manticore into the street.

"What was that?" Diana asked her.

Adalind shook her head. "I don't know." She looked down at the phone in her hands. "I don't have a good feeling about this, Sean."

"We're getting there as soon as possible," Renard said over the phone. "Stall for as long as you can."

"What if they come up here?" Adalind asked.

"Keep them away from Diana and Kelly," Renard ordered sternly.

"I will," Adalind promised. She hung up the phone and shoved it under the pillow on Diana's bed. "I'm going to make sure Eve is okay. Diana, stay here and protect your brother."

Diana looked worried, but she nodded in compliance.

Adalind quietly left the room and sighed with relief as she heard the bedroom door lock behind her; Diana was already doing a good job at keeping herself and Kelly safe. Adalind listened as she walked down the stairs, hoping she could get some sort of clue as to what was happening. But she heard nothing - no voices of intruders, but also no voice of Eve. Adalind continued her path down the stairs, looking around anxiously, and froze when she saw Eve lying on the ground. Adalind ran over to her.

"Eve?!" Adalind yelled. She looked over Eve's body and saw with relief that Eve was still breathing.

"We would have thought you'd keep us waiting longer," a woman's voice rang out from behind Adalind. Adalind rose to her feet and spun around to face the stranger.

"What are you doing here?" Adalind demanded aggressively.

The woman took a step forward and Adalind took a step back. "We've been looking for you and your children," the woman explained. "Your family is the last ingredient we need to get Burkhardt to start talking. And once he does, he's dead."

"If you think I'm helping you kill my fiance, you've got another thing coming," Adalind threatened.

The woman laughed. "I don't need you to do anything. In fact, I don't need you at all if I have your son," the woman continued cruelly. "If you decide to be difficult, I could just get rid of you, and your children would lose both of their parents. Is that what you want?"

In response, Adalind woged and used her powers to launch one of Renard's decorative vases toward the woman's head. The woman barely had time to jump to the floor to avoid the vase. Adalind stood over her and growled, "Get out."

"We can't do that," a man said from behind Adalind. Once again, she turned around to find another stranger in her house... accompanied by another three. They were all woged. Adalind stared in horror at the Quijada Vil, the one who had spoken, before glancing over the Mauvais Dentes, Varme Tyv, and Siegbarste.

The Quijada Vil ordered the woman to get off the floor and go upstairs to check on Diana and Kelly.

"No!" Adalind yelled while still woged. The glass panes next to Renard's front door and some glasses that were sitting on a nearby table shattered. Adalind tried to follow the woman up the stairs, but the Siegbarste stepped in her way.

"Let's talk," the Quijada Vil suggested with a cruel look on his face.

*************

Once again, Nick found himself handcuffed to an interrogation room table while Griese sat across from him with a sadistic grin on her face. This time, Reichardt was by her side, looking just as cruel as she did.

"Now, what?" Nick demanded moodily.

"Today, we're going to find out where that book is, one way or another," Griese said happily.

"I doubt that," Nick said pessimistically.

"I wouldn't if I was you, Burkhardt," Reichardt warned. The edge in his voice made Nick nervous.

Griese was still smiling as she said, "We were going to keep it a surprise, but I suppose it's better to tell you..." she began tauntingly. " Nick waited for her to continue, and she did. "Right now, we have six Wesen on their way to Renard's house to pick up Adalind, her daughter, and of course, your son."

Nick was too shocked to speak. If they got his family, if would be game over.

"And if you still decide not to talk to us, we're working a few other angles," Reichardt warned. "We handed Trubel off to Miles and told him to do what he had to. Hopefully, he'll get some answers from her."

Nick didn't know what to do. He was utterly powerless, yet he needed to obliterate Griese and all the others. They were going to hurt his family, and he couldn't let that happen... But, did that mean he had to tell them about the book?

Nick decided to procrastinate the decision.

"How do I know you're telling the truth? How do I know you aren't making it up?" he asked.

Griese pulled out a phone and dialed a number quickly.

"Griese?" a man's voice asked over the phone.

"Is it done?" Griese asked.

"Yes," the man's voice answered.

Griese smiled before putting the phone on speaker and setting it down on the table in front of Nick just barely out of reach. "Is there anything you would like to tell Adalind?"

Adalind? "What?" Nick demanded in disbelief.

As much as he had longed to see Adalind again, longed to hear her voice, he didn't want it to happen like this.

"Nick?!" Adalind yelled. She sounded scared.

Griese and Reichardt grinned triumphantly as Nick panicked in front of them.

"Adalind? Adalind, are you okay?" he demanded instantly.

"Nick, they have Diana and Kelly," Adalind sobbed. "I'm so sorry, I-"

Nick interrupted her. "It's not your fault."

"Nick, I don't know what to do," Adalind winced.

"You both have a choice to make," Griese announced coldly, loud enough for both Nick and Adalind to hear. "The book or your family."

Adalind said nothing, and neither did Nick.

"Make a choice!" Griese hissed, woging into a Hasslich and getting in Nick's face. She was normally composed, but she was losing patience. She had been waiting far too long to get what she wanted; she needed an answer.

But Nick didn't have one for her.

"I can't trust that you'll keep your word if I give you what you want," Nick began. "But if I don't tell you where the book is, I am guaranteeing that you'll hurt the people I care about..."

Adalind could tell what he was preparing to say. "Nick, don't! The second you tell them, they'll kill you, and they'll probably kill us."

"I don't have a choice," Nick objected.

"Please-" Adalind started to beg.

Grises interrupted her. "Enough!" she hissed. She had already transformed back into her human self. She reached down to pick the phone off of the table, and as she did, Nick yelled, "No!" Griese glared at him before taking the phone off speaker. "Gavin, bring them in," she growled into the phone. She hung up soon after, maintaining her cold stare as she said, "You're going to have to make up your mind by the time they get here. For their sake, I hope you love them."

She stood up, and Reichardt followed suit, preparing to leave.

"Don't do this," Nick begged.

"You are not in control here, Burkhardt. We have your family, we have Trubel. If you don't tell us what we want to hear, we're going to make you choose between them." Griese leaned closer to Nick's face. "Who would you save?" she taunted. "Trubel? Your son? Would you be prepared to kill Trubel yourself?"

Nick cringed at the thought, and Griese could see he was close to breaking. "You're going to watch everyone you care about die unless you start talking. So, make up your mind," Griese hissed. She straightened her posture and stared at Nick's helpless expression before walking out of the room with Reichardt in tow.

"Wait!" Nick yelled after them as they disappeared down the hallway. "Wait!"

Of course, Nick didn't know what he would have said if they did wait. He couldn't tell them where the book was, but he also couldn't give them permission to kill his family.

If they were putting him through this torture, what were they doing to Trubel? Nick didn't know.

*************

After kicking down the door, the Manticore woman, in human form, walked into the bedroom where Diana and Kelly were hiding.

"You must be Diana," the woman said with a wide grin spreading across her face. For the most part, she looked friendly, but Diana didn't trust it.

"Go away!" Diana shouted at her. Diana's eyes started glowing un unnerving shade of purple as she glared at the woman.

"Be careful," the woman warned. "You could hurt me, but if that happened, your mother, Eve, Nick, Trubel... all of them would get hurt. If you want to keep them safe, you'll be a good girl," the woman warned. "Think about it. You could kill us right now, but you'd never get everyone that we work for. There would always be someone waiting for the right opportunity, for the chance to kill your friends when you aren't there to help them."

Diana seemed to understand what was going on. Her eyes dimmed to their natural color in compliance to the woman's warning.

"That's better," the woman approved with a gentle smile. Diana glared back at her.

"Why do you want to hurt my family?" Diana asked.

The woman's expression changed to one of sympathy even though she felt none. "Why does anyone hurt anyone?" she asked Diana cryptically. Diana didn't answer, so the woman continued. "Your family could get hurt because it has something that we want," the woman explained.

Diana had more abilities than anyone knew about. From time to time, people would accidentally discover another one of Diana's tricks, and now was a time where she could put those tricks to use. Diana could somehow feel the energy of what was around her, of who was around her. Right now, she could feel a large grouping of familiar auras approaching the house.

In her mind, she thought about the woman's words. People hurt people because they wanted something. "I want something," Diana said ominously. Her eyes turned purple again.

*************

The strange yellowish Gedachtnis Esser entered the house after receiving word from the others that the situation was under control. His abilities were far too valuable to be wasted by haphazardly bursting into an unsecured hostage situation.

Now that everything had gone smoothly, he was preparing to carry out his work; it was his job to figure out where the book was. The task seemed simple enough. All he had to do was probe his tentacles into his victim's brain until he found what he was looking for. When that was finished, Griese and Reichardt would have everything they needed, and they would be able to kill off anyone they wanted.

They would be able to kill Nick and Trubel.

The task wasn't quite as easy as it seemed. The octopus-like monster needed to find the perfect victim. As he walked through Renard's house, he thought about his criteria.

Likely knows the location of the book, not valuable as a hostage, easy to restrain...

The Gedachtnis Esser nearly tripped over his answer.

He looked down at Eve, lying on the floor, unconscious. She was a valued member of Hadrian's Wall, an entangled character in Nick's life, but not as important as a hostage as Nick's direct family. Eve was perfect.

The octopus man took a deep breath before kneeling down in front of Eve's unconscious form. He wrapped his hands around her shoulders and pulled her body off the ground enough for him to slip his tentacles between the back of her head and the floor. All he had to do now was to steal her memories...

Suddenly, a loud crash came from behind him. It was the sound of the front door slamming against the wall as Renard threw it open. His gun was drawn as he rushed into the house and began firing shots before Wu and Hank could make it into the house from the backdoor. Two of those shots hit the Gedachnis Esser, the closest intruder to the front door, while Farris buried a few rounds into a Varme Tyv. All that was left was the Quijada Vil and the Mauvais Dentes with Adalind, the Manticore with Diana, and the... Siegbarste.

The Siegbarste stood in Renard and Farris's path, preventing them from helping the children, or Adalind. Farris emptied her magazine into the towering monster, but it had no effect. Renard already knew what the Siegbarste was capable of and didn't even attempt to shoot it. Instead, he woged, and the fight ensued.

While this happened, Wu and Hank made their way to the living room which Renard and Farris weren't able to reach. They found Adalind there along with the remaining two intruders, the Quijada Vil and the Mauvais Dentes. Hank and Wu were immediately attacked by the Quijada Vil. They were so preoccupied with its quick movements and effective fighting skills that they didn't even notice the Mauvais Dentes rush out of the house. Eventually, Hank and Wu worked together to gain the upper hand, and Wu was able to shoot the monster in the head. Hank quickly ran to help Adalind who was already asking questions about Diana and Kelly that no one could answer yet.

Diana and Kelly were upstairs, but the staircase was blocked by the Siegbarste who was holding his own against Renard and Farris without hardly any effort. Hank and Wu joined in on the fight after helping Adalind, and even with all of them combined, they weren't making any progress in taking down the ogre. In fact, as time wore on, it looked more and more like they were going to lose... Until Diana came downstairs.

She took one look at the Siegbarste, and it was all over. The giant creature stared back at her until the blood dripping from his eyes got so thick that he couldn't see through it. The man groaned in pain as he dropped onto his knees, and then fell silent as he fell to the ground, dead.

Adalind ran over to Diana and held her in her arms while the others looked over the bodies laying on the ground to make sure they were, in fact, just bodies; they were happy to see that all of them were dead, all but the Mauvais Dentes that escaped.

"Is everyone okay?" Renard asked, looking around at everyone. They were all bloody and bruised, but unharmed otherwise.

Adalind pulled away from Diana and looked at her with relief as Renard made his way over to them. "Are you okay?" he asked them specifically.

Diana smiled and nodded, and Adalind answered, "Yes."

"Where's Kelly?" Adalind asked Diana, ignoring Renard's presence again.

"Upstairs," Diana answered happily. "I protected him, Mommy."

"Good girl," Adalind sighed, kissing Diana on the head before shooting a look at Renard. Renard nodded and decided to check on the situation upstairs while Hank, Farris, and Wu turned their attention to Eve who was just beginning to wake up.

"Is everyone okay?" Eve asked groggily.

Hank nodded. "Yeah, we were lucky."

"We might not be so lucky next time," Wu pointed out ominously.

Everyone felt, once more, like they were racing to beat the clock. They were not only running out of time to save Nick but also running out of time to save themselves. Who would die the next time the Reapers and Black Claw paid them a visit?

*************

Griese let herself into Damien's room and found him pacing back and forth anxiously. She wondered how long he had been doing that since it had nearly been twelve hours since Miles bragged about locking Trubel away. Surely, Damien hadn't been pacing for that long, right? Griese didn't know. With the worry that seemed to consume him, maybe he had been able to keep up the act this whole time.

Damien froze when he saw Griese just before he stomped over to her and started yelling at her.

"What the hell is going on?!" he growled. He woged into a Fuchsbau, unable to help himself, and snarled in her face. "You gave her to Miles?!"

"Be careful, or you're going to make things worse for her," Griese warned coldly.

Damien woged back into human form and groaned while clenching his hands into fists with frustration.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Damien asked in a pained voice.

Griese glared at him angrily, furious that he had the nerve to talk to her that way. "I don't have to tell you anything. You work for me, remember? You're lucky that I haven't killed you already."

Damien sighed sadly and quietly muttered, "I'm sorry," to Griese.

"That's what I thought," Griese said coldly, still sounding angry. "Now go to Trubel's room and see what you can get her to tell you."

Damien nodded dejectedly, and Griese left him, slamming the door to his room as she did.

************

Miles stood at the back of the room with his arms crossed as he watched Nick slowly approach the large casket laying on the table. Miles sighed impatiently as he waited for Nick to open it and deal with Trubel. It had been twelve hours, and Miles suspected she wouldn't be very happy with him.

Yes, Nick could deal with her instead.

Nick raised his hands to unlock the bolts keeping the casket shut. Once he slid them out of place, he slowly raised the lid, anxious about what he would find.

Trubel was lying in the casket perfectly still with her eyes closed. She still had tape over her mouth, and her wrists and legs were still taped together. Nick stared at her in shock for a few seconds, disturbed by the thought that she looked dead. To his and Miles's surprise, she hadn't responded when Nick opened the casket. It worried Nick.

"Trubel?" he asked gently but nervously.

She didn't respond.

Nick brushed one of his hands on Trubel's cheek gently, hoping to get her attention. "Trubel, please look at me."

Very slowly, Trubel's eyes began to open. They were entirely devoid of emotion. Expressionless. As Nick looked down at her, he couldn't help thinking that something was wrong. She was there, alive, awake, but she wasn't all there... Nick felt like he had to say her name again.

"Trubel, it's me," Nick told her. No response. "Nick," he reminded her.

Trubel's eyes looked like they were beginning to focus instead of staring blankly at nothing. Nick watched as her awareness slowly started creeping back into her expression. Her eyes grew wider and wider until a look of terror showed itself on her face.

She started panicking. She shied away from Nick's hand that was still cupping her cheek and pulled her hands up to block her face like she was worried someone was going to hit her.

"Trubel! Trubel, calm down! It's okay," Nick said, pulling Trubel's hands away from her face so she could see him. She fought with him briefly before she understood what was going on and let Nick hold her arms still.

"It's okay," Nick repeated calmly.

Trubel stared at Nick and winced.

"I'm going to take this off of you, okay?" Nick said, holding Trubel's face again and touching the tape covering her mouth lightly. Trubel nodded, and Nick carefully removed it. When he was finished, Trubel threw her arms around Nick's neck and buried her face in his chest.

Nick wrapped one arm around her shoulders and slid the other underneath Trubel's legs to lift her out of the casket. He set her down on the floor next to the table and held her hands in his.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

Trubel stared at Nick sadly before the emotionless expression from earlier returned. She stared blankly past Nick and nodded slightly. She was shaking slightly with fear and anxiety. She was a complete mess.

What's wrong with her? Nick asked himself.

"Alright, that's all I needed," Miles announced from the back of the room, uncrossing his arms and walking toward Nick and Trubel. "You can go back to your room now."

Nick stood up and got in Miles's way so he couldn't get closer to Trubel.

"The hell I will," Nick told him.

"If not, I can make you leave and then put Trubel back in her claustrophobic nightmare," Miles suggested, gesturing in the direction of the casket. Nick looked back in Trubel's direction and saw that she was reanimating in response to Miles. She shot a panicked look at Nick, and he understood what he had to do.

"Get out of my way," Miles commanded.

Nick cringed and stepped to the side so Miles could get through. He watched Trubel's expression and raised his eyebrows as a question. Did he do the right thing?

Trubel nodded slightly.

"Now get out of here," Miles ordered.

Again, Trubel nodded at Nick. Nick looked guiltily back at her before spinning around and walking out of the room. Miles watched smugly before grinning down at Trubel who, for the third time, replaced her expression with an emotionless mask.

"Did you have fun?" Miles asked her cruelly.

Trubel clenched her jew tensely but didn't respond otherwise.

"I hope you thought about the answer to my question," Miles said, kneeling down in front of Trubel. He pulled a knife out of his pocket and grinned at her.

Trubel didn't look at him. Instead, she stared blankly down at the floor.

Maybe I want too far, Miles thought, not because he was guilty but because Trubel wasn't any fun when she was traumatized and unresponsive.

Miles frowned, not liking the lack of attention. He cut the tape holding Trubel's ankles and asked, "What have you decided?"

Trubel shook her head.

Miles frowned again. "Tell me. Now," he ordered.

"M-miles, I..." Trubel stuttered. She wasn't able to continue. She couldn't think clearly.

"Now!" Miles screamed in her face.

Trubel flinched - an unusual reaction for her. "P-please," she stuttered. "I n-need a m-minute," she told him.

Her reaction was a bit more like what Miles had been looking for. It was everything he could do to keep from laughing as he thought, "I broke her."

Miles rose to his feet. "Maybe you need more alone time," Miles suggested with a grin, looking back up at the casket.

Trubel's head snapped up to look at him. "No!" she yelled, completely terrified. "Miles, please-" she began to beg.

"Get up," he ordered.

Trubel obeyed. She stood with her back to the casket and then slowly moved to the side to get farther away from it. Miles grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Where is the book?" Miles asked her.

Trubel avoided his glare, staring nervously at the floor. She didn't know what she was going to do.

"Well, I gave you your chance," Miles said frustratedly. He grabbed Trubel quickly, dragged her towards the casket, and prepared to lift her up.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Trubel screamed. They struggled for a short while before Miles dropped her and threw her against the wall.

"You have one day to decide what your answer is. If I don't like it, you're going back into the casket for good. Do you understand me?"

Trubel nodded.

"Then let's go," Miles said. He didn't sound as grumpy as Trubel expected. In fact, he sounded somewhat excited. What did he have planned?

Miles pulled out his knife again and cut the tape binding Trubel's wrists before wrapping an arm around her shoulders and leading her back to her room. She didn't protest.

When they finally reached the door, Miles smiled at Trubel wickedly and told her, "It's too bad you went through this because of Angel." He opened the door and continued. "I guess he didn't really love you, did he?"

Trubel grimaced slightly, trying to ignore Miles's words. Miles laughed and opened the door wider, signaling for Trubel to go inside.

Trubel walked slowly and mechanically into her room. She still wasn't doing well from her recent trauma, so she didn't even notice that Damien was standing just inside her room. She almost ran into him, but he took a few steps back until she noticed he was there.

Miles winked at Damien before shutting the door behind Trubel. Damien glared at Miles before looking down at Trubel who was staring blankly at the ground.

She didn't look good. Damien was very worried about her.

"Are you okay?" he asked her gently, taking a step in her direction. She didn't answer. "Trubel?"

Trubel's blank stare moved to Damien's face. She looked at him vacantly before a sob suddenly erupted from her lips and a pained expression twisted her features. Her knees slowly started giving out, so Damien ran to her as quickly as possible and caught her before she fell. He gently lowered her to the ground and kneeled in front of her so she could cry into his chest while he wrapped his arms around her.

"Why would he do that?" Trubel cried.

"Miles is a psychopath who-" Damien began to explain, sounding furious.

Trubel interrupted him. "No, how could Angel... How could he tell them what I was afraid of?" Trubel cried, heartbroken.

Damien sighed sadly. "Maybe he didn't have a choice," he suggested hopefully.

Trubel didn't believe him. She continued crying while Damien held her. "I'm so sorry," Damien told her. "I'm not going to let them do that again,  he promised.

Trubel was shaking with fear in his arms at the thought of being put through her worst nightmares again. "It's okay. I'm not going to let them hurt you, Lixa," Damien promised

The sobbing immediately stopped as Trubel pulled away from Damien to examine his face.

***

"Then, let's do this," Angel whispered in Trubel's ear. "Lixa," he called her, sounding flirtatious.

"What does that mean?" Trubel asked him, also whispering in his ear. "It sounds sexy."

"It means sandpaper. You know? Because you're abrasive," Angel said, pulling away from her to see the look on her face. Trubel laughed at him; Angel wasn't the first person to call her sandpaper because of her attitude. He was, however, the first person to call her sandpaper in Portuguese.

Trubel grinned and told him, "I like it," before leaning in to kiss Angel.

"I should insult you more often," Angel appraised before kissing Trubel back.

***

Trubel stared at Damien's face with horror as she asked him a vital question.

"Angel?"