In the morning, it’s the usual jogging, followed by yoga, then breakfast. Gabe stops by with his new car (he’d used the money he won to buy a reliable junker), and we talk over breakfast. While we eat he talks about maybe getting a job being a mechanic, since he likes working on cars – but he’d probably need schooling first. We take him out after breakfast to help get his apartment set up, and while that’s occurring I learn from him what Dad’s deal with Donnie’s uncle is (in short, a bad business deal, with bad coincidences).
Come evening, Donovan has a job to do. Someone owed him a lot of money, and he’s had time to pay it off, but has reneged on it, and now is the time to pay, or be made an example of. He suggests we go out and get supplies for some dirty work, so we do that, picking up things like tools, tarps, gloves and painters suits and head to his residence. He lives in a swanky penthouse, but we are unable to get into the place. I manage to get the guard to go check on him, and while he’s doing that, Scott hacks the door security, and he and Danielle sneak in and go investigate.
They manage to find out where he might be, so we head to his sister’s place where we end up finding him, and dragging him with us to try and pay off his debt. He sends us all over town to try and collect on his 2.7 million dollar debt, and by the end, comes up 100k short. Call Donovan to see what he wants us to do, and while he’s impressed by the amount come up with in such a short amount of time, he says that Marcus (the man we had to find) still needs to be made an example of. We are to bring back the head and the heart.
We take him to an abandoned shed and proceed to lay out tarps and put on gloves, goggles and painters suits. He’s very calm, having accepted his fate, just asked us to make it pretty so he could present a good face at his funeral, for his parents. Scott places a bag over Marcus’ head, and takes a swing with the machete he picked up, slicing it cleanly off. My turn – I crack open the chest cavity, going to that dark place before I do so, and Danielle digs out the heart, placing it in the bag with the head. We then head home.
Donovan isn’t there when we arrive, so we have to wait (with the bag on the table) until he comes back. When he does get back, he eats the heart, then offers to reward us, but no one is able to think of anything they want. As dawn is soon approaching, Donovan turns in, as does Scott, but neither Danielle nor I can sleep, so we change to go jogging. We’re getting ready to head out when Gabe bursts in, declaring he knows why Ben makes me so happy. Apparently, Ben gave Gabe a ride home from work, and they had sex. Gabe is incredibly happy, and offers to go jogging with Danielle and I.
During the jog, we talk about relationships (mainly his with his boyfriend (who is his boyfriend no longer)), then head home for breakfast. Scott gets up in time for breakfast, and we all talk about fairly random things, and try to decide what to do for the day. Gabe ends up taking Scott out to get parts for the Mustang, while Danielle and I try to get a couple hours of sleep.
I’m woken up by a phone call from Donnie, who has time between classes and wants to take me to lunch. We talk about things, and I ask what my dad made me promise to ask him – if he was related to the mob. Truthfully he doesn’t know, as his father never talks about his family much. Also, I realize he is adopted (and learn that his sister is as well). We also discuss wedding stuff a little, which only serves to remind me that I need to sit down and talk with Donovan about what kind of life I’m allowed to live.
…that seems so wrong to say.
Near the end of lunch, I receive a text from Scott about Gabe having gone into Donovan’s room. He’s in a panic, but I can’t exactly drop what I’m doing, so I tell him to get Gabe out. In his usual fashion, he tells me thanks for leaving him hanging. You know….I don’t know why I bother to be nice to him. He’s always giving me grief about not helping him. Well you know what? He’s 24 – time to grow up and think for yourself, Scott. I do feel an urge to make sure Donovan is safe, but I recognize it for what it is (the blood bond).
Arrive home in time to find Gabe, with pants down around his ankles, lying on the floor with Scott on top of him. It’s apparent he was tackled, but it is funny. Donnie is finding it hilarious and is snapping pictures, fully intent on sending it to the rest of the Kitties. Scott threatens to kick him off the team if he does, but it’s too late. That done, Gabe gets up, pulling up his (well, Donovan’s) pants. He spends time bad mouthing Donovan, saying he doesn’t like how the guy treats me. In the meantime I’m trying to get him to be quiet because Donnie is there.
Gabe has been trying to get into Donovan’s office for a while, and at one point makes the threat to call Mom to have her help me plan my wedding. It’s shortly after this that Donnie has to leave to get back to classes, so he and I say goodbye and Gabe ends up giving up on calling mom and getting into Donovan’s office (at least as far as I know). Scott, being a pissant about the pictures, goes for a drive to work out some anger.
When Scott gets back, I suggest he get a massage from Danielle to really relax more, but he says he doesn’t feel like getting naked in front of my brother. Gabe takes offense to this and takes off. Scott declines the massage, and Danielle and I go for some retail therapy, Danielle having had the great idea to get Gabe a housewarming gift, now that he has his apartment all set up. Donovan is stirring by the time we get back, and mentions to me to tell Gabe he owes $250 for the clothes he took. He then asks me how much Gabe knows, and I end up telling him that Gabe knows about his being a vampire, and that Gabe is also a mage. To my relief, Donovan says Gabe is safe, because he isn’t human then.
He then announces that tomorrow evening we are going to Elysium. Apparently, the head Nosferatu is going to be putting in a rare appearance. For tonight, he wants us to tend to the housecleaning…and makes us a deal. If we can get the house perfectly clean in the next couple of hours, he’ll spring for a dinner for us from a four star chef. As Sandie is coming over, I can even invite Donnie, and do a double date. We begin cleaning house while he’s out, and even come up with the idea to see if Donovan will be Danielle’s date.
Midway through cleaning, I get a call from Donnie’s mom asking me to come to the hospital. I apologize to Scott and Danielle and leave for the hospital, where Donnie is laid up. In front of his mom and sister, he admits to be mugged, however, once they’re gone he tells me Burtowski did it, Brad filmed it…apparently as a revenge thing for the pictures, on Scott’s behalf. The extent of his damage is bad – cracked ribs, stitches…it’s bad. He has me head home, I promise to come visit tomorrow. He doesn’t want me to let on that I know what really happened though, so I promise to keep the secret.
I get home, and Donovan is impressed with the level of cleaning we did, and goes to make arrangements for the dinner. While it is being cooked, Scott discovers that his snake is missing. He and I both notice the basement door is ajar. head downstairs to discover Bob (that’s the snake) on the floor. Scott scoops him up, then asks to know when I’m going to retaliate against him (he’d been brandishing a popsicle stick cross at me since I got home). I tell him that I am not going to retaliate, as I promised Donnie I wouldn’t.
Ben arrives at the house – somehow he heard that donnie wasn’t going to make it, so he’s there to fill in for him. Sandy arrives in costume from work around this time as well (schoolgirl). We get to talking, and the subject of what happened to Donnie comes up – Donovan declares that Ben (who had offered) should find out who did this to Donnie (who is technically an investment for Donovan, as he is part of the Kitties). After Ben leaves and dinner is over, I talk to Sandie about learning to pole dance. She says to drop by her workplace the following day.
Ben arrives back roughly twenty minutes after this discussion, as Sandy is leaving, and talks to Scott and I about what happened before he talks to Donovan. I simply state that Donnie asked me not to tell anyone, so I was keeping my promise. Donovan now feels he is in a predicament, thinking Donnie will want revenge on Burtowski, who will want revenge back, and etc.
Once everyone has gone, Donovan speaks to the three of us (Scott, Danielle and I) about having received a note from Albrecht, thanking him for allowing Suki to live, and he inquires as to whether we did our job or not. We assure him that we did, Danielle did the deed, and Scott keeps going on about how he’s pretty sure we still have the crowbar with the blood on it. Donovan says he may have to give the wolves their land back, which will cause him to lose face, but may prevent an all out war between the wolves and the vampires.
He says he is going to talk to Nicodemus about the matter, when there is a knock at the door. Guess who? Nicodemus!
Nicodemus essentially tells Donovan to go wait at the kiddie table while he talks to us ghouls. Donovan is livid, heads off to the office without inviting Nicodemus in, so I invite him in. he asks to hear from us everything about the werewolf debacle (and Scott keeps interrupting me) so I tell him, with him filling in gaps. Above and beyond that with his creepy knowledge, he asks if the little girl made it out of town safe, and asked Scott what he thought of Ben. He says that, in exchange for a favor from us (getting one of his ghouls laid – Scott’s department, not mine) he’ll make it so the others know he forced Donovan’s hand.
After he leaves, I let Donovan know he’s gone, and he asks how things went. He seems terrified that Nicodemus knows about Ben, but relaxes a little when it becomes more clear that he knows of Ben, not necessarily what Ben is. After all this, everyone heads to bed (well, presumably Donovan stays up).