“Well well, Dahlia. Changed your mind then? Couldn't bring yourself to stay away from me?”

 Shane stared at me, his blue eyes insipidly pale in the yellow glow of light and stretched wide showing far too much red-veined white around the iris. He looked crazed, naked and glimmering with post-coital – or post kill – sweat. He stared me down; hands at his hips in a proud and arrogant stance, still making no move to cover his nakedness. On the contrary, his confident pose seemed intended to display himself to me, revealing himself in all of his naked 'glory'; and his words supported that theory.

 I mentally kicked myself for my choice of phrase upon entering the room. I'd wanted to go for intimidating and confident, but I should have known that a man like Shane would so easily misconstrue my words. Admittedly, my spying on his sexual antics didn't really speak in my favour either, but my eyes travelled to Evie's corpse still sprawled on the bed. That had to be my trump card.

 “Well...” I found I had to clear my throat before I could continue with my words, when did I suddenly get nervous in this situation? “There is certainly nothing wrong with your ego, Shane. But that is not even close to the reason why I'm here.”

 “Really,” he said in a flat tone, far from convinced by my response.

 He took a couple of steps toward me and, even though the bed still stood between us, I had to force myself not to back away like every instinct in my body was telling me to. I may have been on the verge of completing my contract, but Shane was a killer, a threat and bigger than me. Even with the few mild enhancements my demon blood added to my physical strength and speed I was still very much the prey in the scenario. I didn't necessarily need to overpower him to transport him to Hell, thankfully – flesh to flesh contact would cash in my bounty and allow me to summon the portal that would take us there – unfortunately I needed to be touching him long enough for the power to rise and the 'Void' , as it was called, to open. Thinking on it, succumbing to Shane's advances would probably have been the most simple way to do this, but the idea made my flesh crawl.

 “Y'know, you could have fooled me love. Why else would you be lurking outside the door? Come to see what you're missing out on? I promise you, the live action is much better than the preview.”

 My eyes were, yet again, drawn to the dead body spread out on the bed.

 “Oh really?” I retorted, “something tells me she might beg to differ!” I jabbed a finger in Evie's direction. “Hardly the most romantic of times to make a proposition Shane, with a corpse still littering your bed.”

 “Right, I see, you're squeamish,” Shane responded simply, as if that were such a simple and reasonable explanation for my reluctance. “Because that's not a problem. I can move her out the way, make room for you.” He arched one eyebrow at me and trailed a hand, suggestively, down his stomach towards his genitals.

 My insides twisted into a knot and I swallowed back a burning wave of nausea. I shook my head, “ugh, please. Don't make me sick, there is no way I am getting into bed with you.”

 Shane dragged in an exaggerated sigh. He padded towards me, coming around to the same side of the bed, and I couldn't stop myself from taking that step backwards again. I felt behind me and touched the wall with my fingertips; bad move, last place I wanted to be was backed up against a wall.

 “Then you leave me with a problem Dahlia. Because there is no way I am letting you leave this room, not after what you saw. Now we could have some fun, work something out; that would be the 'easy way' as you put it. I'm not as against that idea as you might think.”

 “The only way you're going to be sure that I won't spill your little secret once I leave this room, Shane, is to kill me; and I've seen how you like to kill. Do you really think I'm that big a fool?”

 He planned to kill me, either way, Shane and I both knew that and, in a way, I could understand his reasoning. Realistically, it was his only option to ensure his secret was kept, never allowing me to leave that room knowing what I did. Well I had no intentions of leaving, not in the conventional sense anyway, and I was never going to give in to Shane's twisted advances. That left one option, the 'hard way' as I had coined it. As soon as he got his hands on me he was going to try and kill me – I couldn't know for sure how, but as strangulation tended to be his preference I was banking on that – and I needed to be in physical contact with him in order to get us to Hell. It felt pretty much like a lose lose situation.

 I knew feigning an interest in his advances would have been a much simpler way to go about this. Draped myself around him and let him think he was getting his fun just long enough to summon the Void, but the thought of touching Shane both scared and sickened me. I blamed the time this case had taken me to get through, the lack of sleep and the human in me making attachments to people. That was what was made me hesitate, made me question myself and listen to my fears.

 Come on Rayne, were you raised like a human or a demon? I scolded myself, silently. But where did I go from there? It was too late to backtrack and go with, what should have been, Plan A. Plan B meant letting him have a go at killing me. I hoped my reflexes were up to the challenge and that I could get us both to Hell before he managed to do any permanent damage.

 Shane let out a full-throated belly laugh, he wasn't in the least bit threatened by my presence – couldn't really blame him, I didn't exactly look terrifying – nor by my bravado.

 “Well, don't know if fool would be the word I'd use.” Shane took three long, swift steps forwards and yanked the door shut with a deafening thud. “But, if you're not a fool, why didn't you run while you still had the chance?”

 He looked down on me, one arm pressed against the wall above my head. I could feel his eyes as they trailed over my slight form, scrutinising every inch. I was trapped in that room and he planned to 'play' with me, whether I was game or not. A tremor of fear rippled through my body, but deep beneath the surface something else started bubbling. An ill placed confidence rose inside me, I had few choices to make, nothing to lose – except maybe my life – I hadn't lost a target yet and Shane was not going to be the first.

 “You know, you can try to kill me Shane. But I don't think you're man enough for the job.” I snarled up at him. Baiting him was probably a mistake but I wanted to get everything over and done with before I let my emotions and fears get any more in the way of my job.

 Shane let out a snort that was half a laugh and half an expression of anger and shoved himself, roughly away from the wall. He stumbled backwards a couple of paces and ran a hand over his shaven scalp in a strange show of awkward tension.

 “Not man enough? You serious?” He snapped, a sliver of anger edging into his tone as I insulted his manliness.

 Shane clenched his jaw. I thought he was trying to come up with another witty retort when, suddenly, he lunged at me. One arm was out stretched, but his hand was open; he wasn't going to hit me, he was going for my throat. I had but a moment to react, shifting my hips around to the side I moved his target out of reach and snapped out my fist at the same time; letting him impale his own nose on my knuckles.

 I slipped backwards, out of Shane's reach, but kept my fists risen in a guard over my solar plexus; ready to block any attack that might come my way and poised to counter. I should probably have grabbed him while he nursed his nose and summoned open the Void, but the adrenaline rushing through my veins had drawn me backwards. Decades of martial arts training became ingrained that there were some 'habits' that were hard to break.

 “Hardly.” I croaked out as I watched Shane push himself back to a more sturdy, standing position.

 My punch had knocked him to his knees; if he'd been a little less thick-headed it might have knocked him out, though I hadn't been banking on that. Even so, Shane was clearly still seeing stars. He sniffed blood from his nose and shook his head to try and clear the fuzziness away, but it didn't take long for him to fix me with a steady, harsh glare.

 “So this is how you want to play?” Shane spat, raising the back of his hand to staunch the blood that wanted to flow into his mouth. “Such a shame Dahlia, we could have had some real fun. But we'll do it your way.”

 I didn't give him the chance to lunge at me for a second time. As soon the words left his mouth I took a swift, half-step forwards and aimed a side kick at his shin. I thrust hard with the kick, pushing through as if I wished my foot would burst out the back of his leg, and smiled with a sick satisfaction when I felt the bone pop.

 Shane cried out in pain and he crumpled back to the floor as, yet again, I backed up a pace; out of arms reach. He looked up at me, disbelief shining in his pale eyes as if wondering how on earth a little bit of a girl like me could have bested him.

 “It's not all about power Shane,” I muttered, reading the look in his eyes.

 “Why don't you run while you have the chance?” He spat back through gritted teeth.

 “Because, where I'm going, I don't need to run. And you're coming right along with me.”

 A frown wrinkled Shane's brow and his stare narrowed and darkened as he drew his own conclusions from my words.

 “So what, you're with the police or something? Huh, they finally get someone to try and bring me in and it's an annoying, nosy bitch like you.”

 I shook my head. “No, Shane, I'm not with the police.”

 “So what, Police, Scotland Yard, the Spooks. All the fucking same.”

 A chuckle escaped my lips, the assumption he drew was mildly amusing no one had ever mistaken me for law enforcement before. My confidence had crept back, especially once I knew that Shane only had one good leg to work with. The arms were still a problem, long and ape like, but, struggling to get up off the floor, he made a far less imposing picture.

 “C'mon Dahlia, just call for your back up and get me to the fucking hospital. You broke my fucking leg!” He snarled, “and don't think I won't have you up on charges for that.”

 “I'm not the law Shane, and there is no back up,” I replied, airily as I took a couple of steps towards him; the time had come to get going. I knelt down beside him, down to the same level so that I could look him straight in the eye as I spoke. “And I dislocated your knee, it's not broken.”

 I reached out to grab him by the shoulder, the incantation to summon the Void on my lips, when he sent his arm flying and landed a heavy backhand against my cheek.

 “Fuck!” I cursed, falling backwards at the force of the blow. “Son of a bitch.”

 “Well, if you're not the law, then I'm not going to regret doing that.”

 My tongue gingerly poked at the inside of my cheek, where it had smashed against my teeth, and I tasted blood. Something about the metallic tang coating my mouth fed the anger that had bubbled to the surface. I'd gotten cocky, too confident and still too influenced by the human inside me to capitalise on my advantage. But the taste of my own blood enlivened the demon nature; and it was her turn to play.

 I sneered at Shane, baring teeth stained red with blood. His shoulders shook with unrestrained laughter, one last moment of amusement before I spat a mouthful of blood into his eyes. I may not play a whore for anyone, but that didn't mean I couldn't play dirty.

 While he sat, partially blinded and frantically blinking away the smears of red that marred his vision – shouting random obscenities in my direction – I lunged at him. My elbow dug deep into his floating ribs while my free hand went to his throat, clasping hard beneath his jaw and digging my fingertips into the sensitive spots below his mandible.

 My lips moved quickly as I muttered the spell the instant I had a touch on his flesh, I didn't want to hang around for too long not within Shane's reach where he could so easily overpower me. I focused my mind on the power that called the Void to open, the words were really just some frippery for show but it gave you something to focus on, a focal point to channel all that power through; that and the desire to go home, something told me I wouldn't have any problems with that.

 It started as a prickling along my arms, a building of tension as the power rose and the Void slowly began to open its jaws. It vibrated through my flesh and into Shane where I held him tightly, I knew he felt it when he stopped struggling and looked up at me, his face still smeared red and his eyes unfocussed.

 “What the hell is that?” he asked.

 A warm wind whipped my hair about my face and a smirk crept to my lips. The vibration spread outwards, through the floor, and it grew in intensity. I could feel it rumbling through the clubs concrete foundations, up through the Earth as if something were digging its way up from beneath us. I wondered if they could feel it out in the bar too, or out in the street even, what would people make of an earthquake so powerful in London? Though, I supposed, stranger things had been explained away by humans, whether it was ever the truth or not.

 I relaxed my grip on Shane slightly, knowing he was too distracted, too anxious to try and bolt, but I never let my hands lose their touch on his flesh. His flesh sealed my contract, and it was only while touching my marks body that the Void would open fully and welcome us into Hell. Holding on to him like my life depended on it was the only way I was getting home.

 “Hell is exactly what it is.” I purred into Shane's ear, “I may not be the law, Shane, but I am your judge, jury and executioner.”

 He jumped slightly and I had to move with him to stop my hands from slipping off of his sweaty skin. His eyes were wide in horror as the patch of flooring just in front of us began to fall away into nothingness.

 The Void opened, black and endless, creeping closer to where we crouched and eating away the floor and the very earth that stood in its way. Shane dug his one usable foot into the floor and tried to push himself away from the bottomless chasm that grew wider every second. I moved with him until the wall was at his back; he couldn't escape; he could never escape as long as I still touched his flesh. The Void would chase us for miles as long as the contact remained, engulfing all the people that stood in its way. In reality that would be a logistical nightmare for me and my kind, so I was thankful I knew Shane couldn't get out of the room. He'd shut the door himself, thinking he was trapping me but really trapping himself, and there would be no way he could get it open quickly enough.

 The blackness reached our feet and I looked Shane in the eye. “Time to go now.” I smiled broadly as the floor was suddenly no longer beneath us and we started to fall deep into the dark.

 Shane clawed at the air as the light from the room above us shrank slowly out of sight; pitiful noises of fear escaping his throat. How the mighty do fall, I thought to myself.

 I spared but one moment to hope that someone might stumble over Evie's body sooner rather than later before my thoughts turned to home. And oh what a homecoming it was going.