The house was an assault of smells.  A thin, old coat of oil and gasoline vapors hung over a layer of desperation and decay, of loneliness and isolation.  It was a familiar scent to Jacob, though he’d never been confronted with it on such a large scale.  If he’d held even the smallest amount more of empathy, he’d have been unable to move.  As it was, he simply filed it away as another sterile fact and focused instead on following his neighbor up the barren staircase toward their goal.

The walls and floors seemed to shift around him in a delicate ballet.  There were murmurs in the air, muffled voices from shifting faces in the walls that threatened his well being.  Those he could block out for a goodly amount of time, as long as they didn’t continue to grow much louder.  He focused on following his neighbor up the stairs, temporarily forcing the murmurs into silence.

A few steps beyond the top of the stairs they were standing before a doorway.  He could clearly hear the sounds from the other side, an anxious mix of mumbles and shufflings against a backdrop of familiar music that drifted through the slightly opened door.  Emily turned just long enough to catch his eye before throwing the door open with an unexpected strength.

There was a moment of stillness as the door slammed against the inner wall and their target stood in unseeing disbelief, wavering slightly on his feet.  His eyes seemed to be putting an enormous effort into focusing.

Emily: “Nathan Holt?”

Nate: “Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?”

Emily: “I’m Emily Laine, a good friend of Markus Green.  You did a very stupid thing, and I’m here to give you a message.”

Without any warning, Nate was on the move.  Emily wasted no time flinging herself at him, intent on throwing her weight against him with her shoulder and knocking him off balance.  It would have been a flawless move, and the night would possibly have ended very differently, but for a single forgotten periodical.

As Nate began to move forward, he stepped directly onto a magazine.  In his haste, his foot slid on the glossy, slippery paper and he went down right when Emily would have made contact.  Her forward motion carried her straight into the far wall and knocked the air out of her lungs.  In an amazing burst of speed, the young man was on his feet and heading out the door toward the stairs.

Jacob felt a momentary vertigo as the lights in the room seemed to flicker as the vampire shoved his way past him.  For the smallest amount of time, the man seemed to two people at once, like a living piece of double exposed film.  He stood blinking at the top of the stairs trying to clear his head, until Emily tore past him in a dead run.  The smell of her adrenaline was like a splash of ice water, snapping him out of his confusion.  He followed down the stairs, slowly at first, until a loud crash piqued his curiosity.  When he reached the landing, he found Emily single handedly attempting to pin a very confused vampire to the ground.

Emily: “Stop trying to run, you bastard!”

Nate: “What the hell are you trying to do, you crazy bitch?  Get off me!”

Emily: “I want you to shut the hell up and listen to me.”

Jacob slowly worked his way around the room, trying to find the balance between the visions that were fighting for his attention.  He was only partially aware of Emily’s voice, which was becoming distorted in his head.

Jacob: “It reeks of death here.”

Emily: “What, Jacob?”

In the moment’s distraction, Emily was thrown backwards.  As she hit one of the rickety chairs lined up by the table, it broke with a dry snap.  The smell of blood was instantly overpowering, causing colors to flare to life.

Emily rebound with a fiery single-mindedness, grabbing Nate before he’d even gotten halfway to his feet. 

Emily: “You’re really trying my patience, you asshole.”

Nate: “What do you want?”

Emily: “You hurt my friend tonight.  I’ve come to warn you that you don’t get out of town tonight, you’re going to find yourself in a hell of a lot of pain, if not dead.  But before you go, I want you to tell me who put you up to this.”

Nate: “Put me up to what?  I gave him a gift, and you’re acting like I did something horrible!”

Jacob heard but didn’t consciously register the loud crack as Emily backhanded Nate, sending out a spray of blood from his nose.  His attention was focused entirely on the splintered chair in front of him.

Drake: “You were an easy target.  You made yourself an easy target.  We wouldn’t have even noticed you if you combed your hair and didn’t look like you get dressed in the dark.”

Emily: “A gift, my ass!  Who sent you?”

Nate: “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Emily: “Markus doesn’t want us to kill you, but I’m not so sure we’ll be able to respect his wishes for much longer.”

Nate: “I just wanted them to keep making music!”

Jacob shifted his attention away from the chair.  Tears were shimmering in Emily’s eyes while a thin trail of blood traced down from a small cut across her right cheek.  He watched, nearly hypnotized, as a droplet of the thick, red liquid hung for a second before falling onto the back of her hand.

Drake: “There’ll be a hell of a lot more where that came from if you don’t do something.  Then again, maybe that’s what you really want.  Nothing quite like losing yourself to the bloodlust, is there?”

Emily: “And you honestly thought they’d stay together forever if they were all vampires?”

Nate: “I didn’t have a choice!  Would you rather I killed him?”

Emily clenched her fists tightly and took a deep breath.  She knew if she didn't step away at that very moment, she wasn't going to be able to keep from killing Nate.  She took a deep breath and moved next to Jacob; when she spoke, her voice was quiet and calm.

Emily: “You make me sick.  If I hadn’t given Markus my word, you’d have been nothing but dust by now.”

Jacob watched closely as Nate staggered backwards, nearly tripping over a chair in the process. 

Nate: “You broke into my house and attacked me!  If I hadn’t had to drug him, I’d have killed you before you even knew what was happening.”

Emily: “Get out of here.”

Nate: “You’re crazy!”

Drake: “You’re getting worse, aren’t you?  The medications aren’t working like they used to, not any more.  Maybe it’d be easier to just give up on the sanity thing all together instead of fighting so hard.  You must be so damned tired.”

The background hum of the room had become a shrill drilling in the center of Jacob’s head.  The air was heavy with the smell of blood and death, and Nate’s cries of indignation were causing every nerve in his skull to sing out in protest.

Emily: “No, I’m not crazy; I’m just very angry.  Now listen, and listen good.  I’m just one very mortal, very ordinary human girl, and I managed to kick your ass pretty damned well.  You know about Tristan and James, and I can promise you that if you stick around town long enough to get a visit from them, you’ll wish I’d killed you.  Do you understand?”

Nate: “What the f—“

Emily: “Do you understand?”

Nate: “Yes!  Yes, OK!  I’ll go!”

Drake: “Why are you letting this go on so long?”

Through the incessant buzzing, an idea took hold inside Jacob’s mind.  A cold, lupine smile slowly spread across his mouth, stopping short of his now deeply red eyes.  As his perceptions became clearer, he watched as what little color Nate had quickly drained from his face, leaving it an ashen grey.

In a flash, he reached down, picked up the remains of the chair leg, and launched himself through the small distance between them.  From somewhere several miles away, he heard Emily screaming his name.   Her words were cut off by a loud crash as he slammed full-force into Nate, knocking them both over the coffee table and onto the floor.

Nate: “Get your god damned attack dog off of me!  I was leaving!”

Jacob: “Why don’t you stay dead?!”

Nate: “What the hell—“

A mix of white, blinding rage and terror tore through the cracking sparks of confusion.  With supernatural ease, he swung the chair leg down in an arc that ended several inches on the other side of Nate’s body.  It cracked through his ribcage with a sickening effortlessness, and for one brief moment there was a look of shock and terror on the vampire’s face before he was nothing but dust.

Jacob held tightly to the piece of wood, listening intently for just a fraction of a second.  The buzzing continued, and it felt to him as if it would dissolve his brain from the inside out.

Emily: “I cannot believe you did that.”

With a single cry of frustration, Jacob spun toward the sound of Emily’s voice and threw his makeshift weapon through the air.