first of all, thank you all for the overwhelming response I've gotten for the last chapter of this fic. I know it was a while ago but it meant everything to me and I can't thank you enough. second of all, mercury is a metal that's deadly/toxic to werewolves, and wolf's bane is poisonous to them. you're getting this information for reasons. obviously

I'm so, so nervous about what you're gonna think of this, especially the part in the present. Boom goes the dynamite is all I'm saying…

warning: pretty graphic descriptions of violence, I guess. and deaths. as always, so many deaths.

song: sting by the neighbourhood. listen to it. trust me, it's basically a summary of the entire story, both lyrically and musically.

I hope the long wait for this chapter will be worth it at least a tiny bit. enjoy

xx P.

Chapter Eight: Sting

If you were human
If you were who I assumed you were
You wouldn't have done this
I thought I did something
But she would do anything to bring me down
And she brought me down

New York, july 1903

.

"You can't go."

"Excuse me?"

"I don't want you to leave", he breathed out, worlds leaving his mouth hastily as if he needed to get them out before he could think them through.

"That's not your decision to make", she fired back.

"Can I come in?"

"What do you want?"

"We need to talk."

"No, Harvey, what do you want?"

Harvey clenched his jaw and took a step forward. Donna took one back.

He closed the door behind him. "I want— I need you to wake up. I know you don't want to hear it, but you have got to start facing reality"

"Your reality, you mean", Donna gave back, but he just shook his head.

"No. You're reasonable, so I spend the last weeks gathering everything I could find, proof, facts, call it whatever you want, but it's all here. I have it all here for you. But you gotta meet me halfway, you have to open your mind to the truth."

"Your truth", she insisted.

He sighed at her stubbornness but seemed to have no intention of leaving without a fight.

She crossed her arms in front of her chest and gave him a sharp nod. "Fine, you have five minutes to make your case."

So he did. He'd worked as a lawyer for long enough to know how to present his side, how to convince someone with indisputable facts. He laid it all out for her, Neil's connection to Stephen long before Stephen "saved" Donna, their association to an underground faction all across the country that, from Harvey's guess, was a network of hunters planning to further decimate supernatural species, payments to Stephen indicating that he found Donna on purpose, to bring her back to her family so that they could regain control over her.

Donna let him finish with a hard, unreadable look on her face. After he was done, she took a deep breath and said, "Get out".

Harvey faltered. "What?"

"You heard me. I listened to your side and you failed to convince me. Now get out so I can finish packing."

"Donna", he said desperately, taking another step forward. She took another step back. "You can't be serious?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

"You can't argue everything I just explained to you away because you don't want to admit you're wrong."

She scoffed. "You think this is about me wanting to be right? I'm getting married soon, Harvey. I agreed to spend the rest of my life with this man and I am sorry you're too jealous to be happy for me, but that doesn't mean I will let myself be talked out of making this choice just because you don't like it."

Harvey stared at her in disbelief. "Are you really that deep in denial?"

"I'm not in denial. This is my life now, and you might wish for things to go back to the way they were before, but they wont. You should try to move on from it. I certainly have."

The way she adjusted her powder blue dress, completed by embroidered white flowers and flouncy sleeves was the last straw. Harvey felt like the withheld anger inside of him would make him explode if he kept it in for one more second. "Fine, I'll go. Let me just say one more thing: this whole façade of yours? I can see right through it."

Her brows shot up. "Pardon me?"

"Stop it. Just stop this act, it's not working on me. You've behaved less human when you actually were one. You're overcompensating with your straightened, done-up hair and the perfect dresses and expensive jewellery. You can't act away your vampirism by ignoring it during the day, by cutting yourself off from us and throwing yourself into an unhappy marriage. After you turned, you left to be free and you came back more trapped in your life and your family affairs than you've ever been before. And your cute little dresses won't change shit about who you really are. You're dead. You feed on innocent people. You've killed. And you love it. You're no better than the rest of us. If only, you're worse because you're pretending to be above it all."

She stayed silent, acting like he hadn't hit a nerve, acting like his words had no impact on her.

Instead, she let him walk away, fiercely ignoring the part inside of her that wanted to follow, because it feared he was right. And she did fear it, she had since she'd seen him again and that was why she wanted to leave New York as soon as she could. She wasn't ready for her world to fall apart again. Shed barely put the pieces back together.

So, she clung to the naïve hope that he'd just let it go.

.

Of course he didn't.

She already saw Harvey again a couple of hours later at the ball that was meant as an unofficial going away celebration for her and Stephen.

Harvey crashed it without an invitation, Jessica at his side and a childish, stubborn look on his face. He strode through the room after Stephen had just given a toast in honour of his fiancé, and, in front of a crowd full of shocked people, asked a dumbfounded Donna for a dance.

It was as blunt as it was outrageous. A scandal of the highest order. Something the old Donna would've loved. And yet, it would probably make it worse if she'd say no.

Donna turned to her fiancé, who hadn't taken his furious eyes off Harvey. "Darling, do you mind?"

Stephen forced a smile. "Nonsense, why would I mind?" Still looking at Harvey, he bent to kiss her cheek. Harvey had to resist punching him right in the face. "I'm sure it will give both of you a chance to say goodbye."

Harvey's clenched fist only softened when Donna's stare turned to him. She took his stretched-out hand and they walked through a crowd of whispers, past Neil and the rest of Donna's family, past Jessica who made a face like she was ten seconds away from kidnapping both of them until they got over their issues and stopped dragging everyone into their mess.

Donna felt the eyes of over a hundred people on her, judging her for accepting his hand, judging her for not handling the situation as gracefully as a woman of her status should, judging her for still being unable to let go of Harvey despite her serious commitment to another man.

And suddenly, it was all too much.

She unlinked herself from him and started to walk away, almost fleeing from him. "No."

"What do you mean, no?"

"I changed my mind. We've said everything that needed saying, so I want you to leave, for good this time."

"Donna come on", he said, following her through the room because he didn't know what else to do. The music stopped and new couples assembled on the dance floor.

"I said I don't want to talk to you!" She turned around and looked back at him with furious heat in her eyes. "Have I not made myself clear enough earlier today? Which part of that was so hard to understand?"

"I need you listen, really listen, to what I have to say."

"I don't give a shit what you have to say. You're not going to sway me into staying."

He stared at her silently, weighing his options. Then, to Donna's mild surprise, he offered her his hand again. "Will you at least give me one last dance?"

She bit her lip. She shouldn't. Knowing the effect he could have on her, she shouldn't.

And yet, her hand found his for a second time and before she could help it, she was letting herself be led onto the dance floor by him. Harvey bowed his head and gave her a small smile. She didn't smile back. She shouldn't. She was leaving the day after tomorrow.

Their fingertips met and this time the touch send shock waves through her body. Her chest hurt from holding so much in.

"Why?", she murmured when couldn't fight it anymore. If he was going to do this to her, right here and now, then she wanted to hear the whole truth. She needed him to admit it.

He met her eyes with severity, didn't let her escape his stare when she twirled around him and then interlaced their fingers again. "Why what?"

"Why are you so hellbent on destroying my engagement?"

"He's working with them, Donna", he repeated the words from earlier, but this time, there was more behind it. Confronting her with facts hadn't worked, so now he tried to persuade her emotionally. "Your family arranged the entire thing, he knew where to find you, he knew he could take advantage and gain your trust while you weren't in your right mind. He fed right into your struggles and he's been trying to control you ever since, because they want to control you."

Donna's next step came a beat too late and he noticed, slowing his rhythm so she could catch up. She picked up her pace again after a moment, trying not to think about how they always seemed to move in one fluid motion. "This is bullshit."

"It's not. And deep down, you know it. You've seen that I had him followed for the last month, you've seen how many times he met up with your father and uncle." He paused, side-stepping her when they had to switch partners. His hand was back on her waist way too soon and this time, he threw caution into the wind and pulled her closer, staring at her with a mixture of desperation and heat. "He met Neil every single day."

She tried to get out of his hold without causing a scene. "No."

"They met up for dinner, they went golfing— "

"Shut up."

"I saw them sign the contract yesterday."

Tears were threatening to spill out of her eyes. "You're lying."

"You've seen the proof, Donna." His arm wrapped around her back as his face settled next to hers, mirroring the position they'd been in before, all these years ago when they first danced at the Bradley Martin ball and Donna'd had the upper hand. "Please?", he whispered. She felt his lips ghosting over her ear. "I need you to trust me."

She swallowed against the lump in her throat. The dance was almost over, so Harvey had no choice but to draw back.

And still, she needed him to say more. "Why?" Her fingers left a trail over his chest, waist and back as she stepped around him, finishing the routine. "Why don't you want me to leave?"

The answer was immediate, almost like a scoff. "You know why."

They were back in the position they'd started in, staring at each other. Donna shook her head slightly; the movement was fleeting but he caught it. His head tilted to the side, his eyes not letting her go, even when they bowed to each other to signal the end of the dance. She felt entrapped by his gaze, freezing in her half-bent position. Their foreheads almost touched. He was still looking at her when he said, "because you know it should've been me instead of him."

Donna jerked back into her upright position, gaping at him with an open mouth. He turned around and left her there on the dance floor, completely shell-shocked by what he said.

"Is everything alright?"

She flinched when Stephens hand reached for her arm, almost screaming at him not to touch her. "Of course," she tried a smile, but it failed miserably when she noticed Harvey observing them from the other side of the room. Knowing he was watching, she moved her head forward and pressed a kiss on her fiancé's lips. "Just make sure he doesn't come close again."

Stephen let out a low chuckle. "I don't think you need to worry about that. He just left."

Good, Donna tried to tell herself. That's what you wanted.

.

She tried to stay surrounded by her family, shielding herself from Jessica who circled around her like a hawk, trying to push down the nagging thoughts, these doubts that grew bigger by the second. But Jessica wouldn't be Jessica if she wouldn't find a way to separate her eventually, – right after Neil and Stephen had excused themselves to go have a smoke outside, which she knew was a lie because none of them smoked — gently pushing into the conversation with a bright smile and determent eyes. Donna couldn't refuse the offer to go get a drink at the bar across the room, if only to escape the excruciatingly boring discussion she'd been trapped in.

"We don't have much time", Jessica hissed the moment they were alone.

"Right to the case, as always", Donna chuckled. "Speaking of things that keep repeating themselves, can you believe that Harvey made a scene like that in the middle of— "

"He was right", Jessica interrupted her.

"Excuse me?"

"He was right. You know he has proof. Neil has been paying Stephen to hunt you down and find you to bring you back under your family's control."

Donna stared at her. "I can't believe you're starting with this nonsense, too."

Jessica pinned her down with a serious, glaring look. "Don't you insult me like that. I'm not stupid, Donna. I'm no fool and I wouldn't stand here and say Harvey is right if I wouldn't have checked his sources. Now, I do feel for you and you have my sympathies for how unfair it is that your family has not stopped manipulating you despite your efforts to free yourself from them, but your denial about it and the surrender that followed is not my fault and I won't take your ignorance when it is aimed at me."

Donna averted her eyes. Her last wall, the only one Harvey hadn't been able to push through, was about to crumble. "It can't be true, Jessica."

"You know it is", Jessica said, somewhat mercilessly. "I think it's time to stop lying to yourself and fight back."

"Fight back?", she murmured.

"Yes, fight back. They lied to you, betrayed you, used you like you were a toy because you were vulnerable and lost and looking for guidance. Are you going to let them get away with it?" Jessica took a step forward, calculating. "Are you going to do nothing? Let them see you as weak, justifying their actions by saying you'd been lost without them? Are you going to prove them right?"

Anger burned its way through the numbness. Actual anger that Donna hadn't felt in so long. Still, she tried to remain wary. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because I want us to take them down together. You and me. I'm sick of their arrogance, how they think they can get away with everything they've done because nobody dares to declare war on the most important human clan in fear of the power imbalance it'll create here. The fact of the matter is, they are a threat to the city, they always have been and I shouldn't ignore it anymore. But more importantly, they wronged you and I want them to pay for it."

"Why? Why help me?"

Jessica made a furious, impatient noise and wrapped her hands around Donna's neck, forcing her to meet her eyes again. "God damnit, Donna! Because you are family."

Donna swallowed. "I don't deserve to be."

"You do. You earned your place here. We want you here, we always have, even when you didn't want it. And you had every right to walk away that night after what I did to you and I'll spend the rest of eternity trying to make it up to you. Starting with this. So, let me help you. Please."

She considered. Took a beat to think about a way out, a way to run away again. But there was none. There was no way out. She knew Neil and Stephen were up to something, and that she'd have to surrender to their will for the rest of her life if she married Stephen. And if not? She'd spend forever trying to hide from her family. She'd spend forever without Amanda. Without Jessica.

Without Harvey.

She'd be alone, hated and wasting her chance at revenge.

She cleared her throat. "Where are they?"

Jessica's eyes were glowing with something between relief and satisfaction. "They snuck into the empty ballroom a few minutes ago. I think they're up to something, but none of my sources could confirm whether or not they planned another attack on us vampires."

Donna nodded. "Where's Harvey?"

The other woman raised her brows, but her voice lacked judgement. "Pretty sure you successfully chased him away for now."

Donna tried her best to ignore the pang of guilt. "It's just us, then."

"Uh-huh. We might have the element of surprise in our favour, but we still have no idea what we're walking into."

A flicker of that old thrill she used to feel before a hunt rose in Donna. "Let's do this, then. If they've been working together since the start, Neil knows I am a vampire anyway, so I might as well expose myself to him."

They moved through the room quickly, trying not to draw too much attention to themselves – especially not after what happened between Donna and Harvey earlier – when they slipped into the entrance hall to get to the other side of the house. The door to the small ballroom was cracked open a little bit, just enough to ring all the alarm bells in Donna's head. She caught Jessica's eyes and saw the same feeling mirrored on her face. But there was no way back now. Donna gave her a sharp nod and Jessica hissed, "remember the code word, we won't attack until then" , before pushing the door open and striding into the room, Donna right behind her.

"Good evening, gentlemen", Jessica said casually, her heels meeting the marble floor with confident, thunderous steps that echoed from the walls. It was an intimidating sight, but Neil's face was as cold and unmovable as ever. Him and Stephen were standing in the middle of the empty room, turning around to face the approaching women.

"Darling, what are you doing here? Didn't you want to get one last drink before we go home?"

"Spare me the act, Stephen." Donna's voice was shaking with anger.

Stephen raised his brows. "I don't believe that's the right way to speak to your future husband."

"I think the wedding will be called off", Jessica commented dryly.

Neil pursed his lips. "I'm shocked." He threw his sister an appraising glance. "It took you so much longer to figure it out than I thought."

"Which was good for us. For preparation purposes", Stephen added.

"It was indeed." Neil clapped his hands. "So, easy choice, Donna. You were supposed to leave for Austin in two days and if you want to guarantee your survival, you should go through with it. Man, I wish Harvey would be here as well, but I guess you managed to hurt his precious feelings again. I'll have to take care of him later."

Jessica tensed up.

"What are you talking about?", Donna asked.

"It's a simple choice, really", said Stephen, "marry me or die."

"A wedding or a funeral", Neil hummed. "Almost sounds poetic."

Jessica huffed. "You can't believe you two children can take it up with me."

Neil tilted his head to the side. "We'll see about that, I guess."

"Yes", Donna growled, "we will."

Jessica's posture was still tense and stiff; she was staring at Neil when she whispered, "Alcott".

Donna leapt forward right away, grabbing Stephen's arm and twisting it on his back, feeling satisfied when she heard a loud crack and he yelped in pain. For a mere second, Neil seemed to be distracted, which Jessica used to her advantage by pushing him against the wall and choking him with her right hand.

"Guess what, darling", Donna hissed when she kicked him in the hollow of the knee with as much force as she could, "I'll gladly attend your funeral."

Something flickered in her fiance's eyes. "Instead of pining after Harvey, you should've tried to get to know me when you had the chance, Donna", he grunted out. "Maybe you would've seen this coming if you had."

The flicker in his eyes grew stronger, turning his pupils into a dark, almost goldish yellow. It would've looked beautiful if Donna hadn't been raised the way she was, if she hadn't been taught since she was old enough to speak that this was one of the three signs.

The eyes. The mouth. The smell.

How on earth hadn't they noticed the smell before?

"Jessica", Donna called out, panic seeping into her voice while Stephen's face was starting to change and she could feel his muscles tensing under her grip. Jessica's eyes widened, she was swaying on the spot when she looked back at the fighting pair, which was all that Neil needed to get hold of his silver dagger and ram it into her stomach. She stumbled back, but the cry came from Donna, who was staring at the man in front of her with complete disbelief.

"Since when are you a fucking werewolf?"

Neil stepped away from the wall, breathless but smug. "He inherited it, we just decided not to trigger the curse until today."

Donna tried to process the information while also pulling the dagger out of Jessica's body. She was afraid to ask but did so anyway. "Who did he kill to trigger the curse?"

"You don't wanna know. And besides— ", Neil's voice rose above Stephen's grunts, "that's not what you should be worried about."

Jessica was panting, bleeding out of the wound that wasn't going to heal anytime soon, but she still stood up to approach the inevitable fight that was about to begin.

Neil chuckled, straightening the collar of his dress shirt. "Stephen is not an ordinary wolf. He's an alpha."

Donna exchanged a desperate look with Jessica. They were both thinking the same thing.

He could turn at will.

Whatever they'd prepared themselves for, it hadn't been this. And they sure as hell weren't prepared for the dozens of werewolves that came running through the doors on every side of the room. Neil's plan finally became crystal clear. He had them exactly where he wanted them, circled in by a pack of wolves and their alpha, with Jessica already wounded and without a way to escape through any of the doors.

"I told you", Neil said, leaning back against the wall with a small smirk. "You either choose your wedding or your funeral. Last chance."

Donna scoffed. Both her and Jessica would rather die on the spot than submit and he was well aware of that. "Fuck you", she spat.

He only shrugged. "Just don't beg me to spare her life later."

He gave Stephen, who was already halfway into his wolf form, a nod, and Stephen's growl seemed enough to call his pack into motion.

Donna was more thankful than ever that she could fight blindly alongside Jessica, and that neither of them ever left the house without at least one weapon. Another advantage they had was the moon circle. She didn't even want to think about how little chances they would have if it were full moon and their enemies would fight in their supernatural and not in their human form. As the wolves came running towards them, Jessica started her usual instructions.

"Back to back."

Donna obeyed automatically by pressing her back against the other vampires', cursing her uptight, uncomfortable dress for being completely unfit to fight in properly.

"Stockings?"

Donna nodded. "Wolf's bane?"

Jessica hummed.

"Silver?"

"Mercury."

Donna smiled despite herself. Leave it to Jessica to be perfectly prepared even when they were trapped, outnumbered and, generally speaking, fucked. She pulled her small but sharp dagger from the hidden place in her stockings and wrapped the stem of the poisonous flower that Jessica had given her around it. "Let's do this."

Jessica was quickly going through all of their options in her head before settling on a specific tactic. "Flying Harvey", she hissed. "Go for the heart. Use your speed. And Donna", their eyes met for a brief second. "Don't get bit."

Donna got into position right away, bending her knees and staying almost deadly still while she was waiting for her opponent to attack. The woman in front of her was inexperienced, approached her with too much speed and had the most obvious body language she'd ever seen. Donna decided to save time and not stab her first; instead she evaded the blonde's punch by crouching down, grabbing her legs and smashing her into the floor in one fluid motion. She ripped the woman's heart out without blinking.

Maybe her old, fun training sessions with Harvey had been useful for more than kicking his ass, after all.

The next wolf got her dagger stuck in his neck and feel to the ground with a howl, the one after that came so close she merely had to stretch her hand out at the last second and toss him aside, throwing the heart she held in Neil's direction. Like expected, the wolves fought dirty and quick, touch-based but without any proper technique. Jessica's tactic to get them to the ground as soon as possible proved to be well calculated until the wolves started seeing it coming.

"Shit", Donna cursed after nearly getting bit by her last victim. "Guillotine?", she threw over her head questioningly.

"Just be careful", Jessica yelled back, swiftly decapitating her attacker with a precise, forceful swing of her right hand.

Donna quickly side-stepped her next opponent, throwing her arm around his neck and trapping him in a headlock. There was a loud, disgusting snap when she broke the werewolf's back and she had to suppress a shudder, immediately having to go to hand to hand combat with a tall, raven-haired woman that attacked her from the side. "It takes", she panted, placing a sharp punch against the woman's jugular, "too much time."

It became more and more obvious that no matter how strong and superior Jessica and Donna were individually, they're back-to-back fighting was missing an important piece: Harvey. They were used to fighting as a trio, to have all fronts and sides covered by each other. Without him, they both had blind spots on their sides, not to mention they also missed a skilled and lethal fighter.

Jessica tried to take in the room around her, thinking of her next move, a way to end the fight before they were losing their upper hand. She had to keep an eye on Neil, who'd been watching what was happening from the side of the room but who could surprise them by joining at any given moment. They still had more than half of the wolves to fight.

And Stephen. Everything in Jessica's mind came to a screeching halt.

Where was Stephen?

She spun around and found Donna opposite a fully turned alpha. Jessica's reaction was nothing but a simple reflex, the moment the wolf flexed his muscles and jumped forward, she rushed in between Stephen and Donna, feeling his sharp teeth sink into her shoulder a second later. She managed to ram the mercury knife into his thigh before falling to her knees. The wound on her lower stomach was still bleeding and weakening her, now joined by the fresh one on her shoulder that also wouldn't heal by itself. The poison from the werewolf bite started crawling through her body, making her skin feel like it was on fire.

"Get out of here", she gasped in Donna's direction.

"No fucking way", Donna snapped back, pulling the knife out of Stephen's leg and, armed with a weapon in each hand now, stepping in front of the nearly unconscious vampire. "We don't leave each other behind."

She managed to take out at least five more wolves before even the last bit of optimism drained out of her and made room for the blank realisation that she wouldn't stand a chance on her own. She'd just ripped the heart out of a particularly nasty attacker when she could sense Stephen coming up from behind her and she knew it was too late.

Well, if she was going down, the least she could do was take him down with her.

The wolf's claws dug themselves in her waist, almost mirroring the way he used to touch her on the same spot with his hands. Donna cried out in pain and sank to the ground. She managed to roll onto her back – not even noticing that she was lying in a pool of Jessica's blood – and strengthened the hold on the mercury knife in her left hand. Stephen pinned her down his paws, almost crushing her shoulders when he bent down and bit her. It felt like he ripped out half of her neck, the force behind his bite left her helpless, surrendering to his hostility and animalistic instinct to hurt her as much as he could.

When he finally pulled back, they came face to face for a few seconds. Donna stared at the animal that was about to kill her and hatred swept through her, burning, passionate hatred; hatred for Stephen and the way he used her when she had done nothing to him; hatred for her family and Neil in particular, Neil who was just standing on the side line and watched his own sister get torn apart for his own amusement; but most of all, hatred for herself. For the way she'd been so desperate to run away that she'd refused to see reason, to see what'd been happening right under her nose. For the fact that she let this beast touch her so she didn't have to think about the touch from the one person she could never erase from her mind.

Stephen growled. Their eyes met. Donna thought that his eyes were the only thing that still made her recognise his human form. His eyes had always been so different from Harvey's.

She'd liked that about them.

Donna didn't break eye contact when she gathered every bit of strength to pull the knife out from under her back and slit his throat. She turned her head to the side when his blood rained down on her, covering her face and chest and the floor around her. Stephen collapsed on top of her with an inhuman howl, and when she felt his mouth on her neck again, she was too weak to push him off. She just laid there, staring hazily at the ceiling and concentrating with the last she had in her to listen and catch Jessica's uneven heartbeat next to her. It was weak, but it was still there.

With Stephen still biting into her flesh, Donna reached out through what felt like a sea of blood, hers, Jessica's, Stephen's and that of so many more whose bodies were scattered around them, and found Jessica's hand. She clung to it desperately, her eyes already too heavy to keep them open when she felt Stephen slip off her, falling onto the floor to her right.

Jessica's fingers twitched and Donna managed a smile. At least now, for the first time in years, she didn't feel alone. In fact, it almost sounded like Harvey's voice got through to her, cutting through a fog of pain and poison.

Jessica's fingers twitched again.

And there was Harvey's voice again.

For a moment, it almost felt like he was there with them.

.

He was pacing next to their bodies. Donna and Jessica, lying next to each other like it was already too late, like there was nothing left for him to do.

Harvey had been in a constant state of panic since he'd found them in the small ballroom, having only gone back to the ball because he hadn't been able to shake the feeling that something would go terribly wrong.

His intuition had been right.

Still, he'd arrived too late. He'd arrived to a picture he'd never forget, to more than a dozen of bodies, hearts, heads and blood splattered around everywhere in an otherwise empty room. Three of those bodies he'd known, and all of them had looked dead.

There'd been Stephen, with a slit throat and a last trace of horror in his lifeless eyes.

There'd been Donna, her upper body and face almost unrecognisable by the amount of blood she was covered with.

There'd been Jessica, also drenched with blood, holding Donna's hand like it was her last connection to the land of the living.

The only thing that'd pushed him forward had been his refusal to accept losing them both at the same time. Losing them like this.

He hadn't known what to do, so he brought them to the first place he could think of. Harvey ran his shaking fingers through his hair, stopping dead in his tracks when he heard the door snap shut behind them.

"Are you insane?", Amanda hissed, tightening her robe over her chest.

"I didn't know where else to bring them." Harvey's voice was shaking as much as his hands.

"Harvey, my children are sleeping under this roof, I told you not to involve me in your war if it endangers them. And this— ", she gestured towards Jessica's and Donna's lifeless bodies, "—this endangers them."

"Amanda please. I need your help. I need your clear mind because…", he faltered, adjusting the hem of Jessica's dress so that it fell over her ankle again. "I don't know what's wrong with them but it's serious. And I'm nothing without them. You know that."

Amanda gave him a long look, full of conflicting emotions that ended up boiling down to one simple thing: they were family. "I need to know what happened."

Harvey let out a desperate chuckle. "I don't know. I found them like this, Stephen bleeding out next to them."

"And where is Stephen now?"

"I left him there to die", he said coldly.

"Good."

"I just don't know why they're unconscious", Harvey continued while Amanda started examining their bodies, "It's like something is crawling under their skin, something that's weakening them."

"It's not silver", Amanda murmured, feeling Jessica's pulse. "Her heartbeat isn't slowing, it's quickening. Which means their bodies aren't paralyzed or shutting down by whatever is pumping through their bloodstreams, they are resisting it."

Harvey nodded. "Silver would make their veins come out ash grey, this almost looks like they're glowing with heat."

"Blackthorn?", she suggested.

He shook his head. "They wouldn't be lying this still, they'd be conscious and puking their guts out. No, this is something silent. Something dangerous."

Their eyes met when the realisation hit them at the same time.

"Shit."

"Fucking werewolves."

"I'm waking Adam."

.

"How can both of you miss not one but two goddamn werewolf bites?!"

"They are covered in blood, I thought it was a flesh wound."

"A flesh wound?", Adam repeated furiously, throwing different, suspicious looking items in a clay bowl next to that one scented candle that always gave Harvey the worst headache. "And just as a coincidence they both have a flesh wound near their neck? Are you freaking kidding me?" He turned to throw his wife a look. "And you should've seen it immediately, too."

Amanda squinted her eyes. "At least I'm not a supernatural being and should've figured out what it was by the pure smell of it. How did that fly over your head when you found them in a room full of dead wolves?"

"Amanda", Harvey argued sharply. "You know what this entire fucking room smelled like? Like blood. Like their blood, that's all that registered with me." He took a deep breath. "Look, I don't need either of you to make me feel like shit, alright? I found them like this, didn't see a single hint of a wolf in its true form and couldn't think straight. And it didn't really help that I haven't seen a single werewolf bite in the last century. I thought the Paulsens got rid of them."

He frowned when Adam lit the ingredients of his spell up with a snap of his fingers. "And what the hell are you doing? Why does this look like a summoning spell?"

"Because I'm summoning someone", Adam replied dryly.

Harvey's eyes widened. "No, not her."

"She's my sister."

"I don't trust her", Harvey said.

"You don't trust anyone. And the way I see it, we have two options here, Harvey. Either I call her for help or Donna and Jessica will succumb to the painful delusions that'll start in less than ten minutes. Because I'm not sure if you realised but I am completely out of practice and even if I were at full power, I weren't sure if I could save them." He narrowed his eyes on Harvey. "You might not trust her because you fear her power, but we don't have time for this stupid war between the species if we want them to make it through."

Harvey felt a light pressure on his shoulder. He turned to see Amanda coming up next to him.

"It's going to be okay."

"How would you know?"

"You may not like Gloria, but she likes Donna and she sees a place for her in the future of the city. As the leader of the witch coven, she's too obsessed with keeping the balance to risk anything upsetting the course she set for the next years."

Harvey hummed, taking her hand. "It's going to be okay", he echoed her words.

"Adam", another voice, dark and rich, called from the other side of the room. As always, Gloria's entrance and aura radiated almost vibrant power. Her white dress sparkled in the dim light, a bright contrast to her dark skin, her black hair falling over her shoulder in long waves. "It's been a while since we talked. I see you seek my guidance rather than my company."

Adam stretched out his hand. "Please, sister. I am desperate. If the venom spreads further into their bloodstreams, there's no hope for them."

Gloria gave him a gentle smile. "Hope is a fickle thing."

Harvey groaned. "Will you two stop philosophising about life and get on with it?"

The witch's dark eyes rested on him, immediately making him uneasy. That was exactly why he didn't want Gloria to help them.

"Harvey", she said, taking him in with that persistent stare of her. "As impatient as ever, I see."

She moved around the table until she was a few steps away from him. "Do you know why I never punish your rudeness?" Harvey swallowed, but stayed silent, even when her hand tapped lightly against his chest. "Because of your heart. You have a good heart; you must be careful not to fall victim to it."

Harvey's hand twitched nervously. "Will you help them?", he asked quietly. "Please."

"I will do the best I can. That's all I can promise."

The minutes that followed were some of the longest in Harvey's existence. He made sure to stay close to Amanda, eyeing Adam and Gloria who were bend over the dining table to examine the two unconscious vampires. His anxiety reached its peak when Jessica's heartbeat fastened so much he could barely tell the beats apart anymore.

"It's not working", he whispered, voice hoarse and throat tight. Amanda gripped his hand with more force. "It will."

"What if it doesn't?"

She searched for his eyes before she replied, "You need not have some faith."

Harvey scoffed. "I have faith in myself. And in them", he waved his hand in Jessica's and Donna's direction. "That's it."

"Then put all your faith in them to pull through."

He swallowed. "Should we maybe— I don't know, send a messenger to the rest of the Paulsens?"

Now it was Amanda's turn to scoff. "Don't be naive, Harvey. The only thing that was worse than me marrying a black man without the permission of my family was marrying a witch who used to be part of the most powerful coven in the city." Her eyes flickered over to Donna. "Without her standing up for me and risking everything, I wouldn't have been able to stay in the city. I owe her my life, my happiness and the safety of my children. I won't put that in jeopardy by letting these monsters know we're using magic to save her."

Harvey felt a rush of guilt sweeping through him. "I'm sorry, I know it's a sensitive subject for you. Sometimes I forget how much you've been through because of them."

"Don't worry about it." She gave him a small smile and he felt his chest tighten at the resemblance she had with Donna at that moment. Donna hadn't smiled at him for a really long time.

He blinked a few times and brought his attention back to the two siblings at the other side of the room who'd just finished a complicated spell. Adam looked exhausted. Gloria looked completely unfaced.

"Is that it?" Harvey tried to keep his tone of voice unaccusingly.

Gloria nodded. "We have done all that is in our power, we tried to separate the poison from the blood and extract it, but there is no way of knowing if some of it had already reached the heart before I got here."

"So, what now?"

"Now", she went on, "you should try to have some faith that they will have enough fight in them to wake up again. Jessica seems to be recovering, which doesn't surprise me given her nature, but I am uncertain of Donna's fate. She seems to have been the main target and was attacked twice, so— "

She paused when Amanda moved over to Donna's body, taking her hand and clinging to it desperately. "She will wake up. Donna is not one to just fade into nothingness. If she'll ever go out, it will be with a bang."

Gloria exchanged a long look with Adam that said more than a thousand words. Then, she kissed him on the cheek. "I hope so. Do reach out to me more often, little brother. And not just in case of emergencies like this one." She nodded in Amanda's direction. "Your family will always be welcomed by our coven."

She had already turned towards the door when Harvey raised his voice.

"Wait."

He took a step forward, his eyes unusually sincere. "Thank you. You didn't have to come, let alone help. But you did, and I owe you for that. So thank you."

.

Long after Gloria had left, Harvey was still sitting next to the two women, almost as unmoving as them. Amanda, who'd just come back from the kitchen to make them a cup of tea, observed him with worry. She hated seeing him like this, serious, quiet, grown-up. It was unsettling how little it suited him. "I can stay with them for a while so you can… you know, eat."

Harvey huffed. "No, I'm good. It's almost sunrise, you should go to bed."

Amanda sat down on the chair next to him. "I won't be able to sleep until she wakes up, so I might as well stay."

If she wakes up, Harvey thought darkly, but he knew better than to say it out loud. "What about the children?", he asked instead.

She sighed. "God bless Adam."

"He's a good catch." Harvey smiled. "Especially for a witch."

"Says the vampire." Amanda teasingly poked his side, but the tone switched back to serious very quickly. "Is Jessica feeling better?"

Harvey nodded. "She should wake up soon, I already saw her eyelid twitch twice. I think she's just making me wait to teach me a lesson."

Amanda took a sip from her mug. "You were nice to Gloria today. That was a first."

"What do you mean?"

"You're usually rude to people who intimidate you."

"She doesn't intimidate me one bit."

"Oh, she definitely does", came a whisper from the table.

Harvey jumped to his feet. "Jessica", his voice was shaking with relief, "How do you feel?"

"Like I was poisoned", Jessica said dryly.

"You need blood", Amanda murmured, already rolling up the sleeve on her left arm. "Let me see if I can get a sharp knife from the kitchen and extract some."

She rushed out of the room. Jessica sat up with a groan, her eyes falling on Donna's body right away. "She's worse than I thought."

Suddenly, Harvey's throat was tight again. "I know. I'm not sure if she'll make it. I did everything I could, I— we called Adam and Gloria for help. They tried to extract the poison but", he tried swallowing again. The lump in his throat just wouldn't go away.

Despite her weakened state, Jessica reached out to wrap her hand around his wrist. "She's going to be just fine."

He was getting sick of everyone telling him the same empty words over and over again. "You can't know that."

"I choose to believe in her strength. It's enough for me to know she'll fight her way back." She gave him a meaningful look. "Maybe she just needs you to remind her of what she would leave behind otherwise."

His face was full of doubt. "Why me? Why not Amanda? Or you?"

Her lips twitched. "Call it a hunch."

"But how can you be so sure?"

Jessica moved to the edge of the table with a grunt. Pearls of sweat rolled down her temple but her voice was steady and light, like she had not just been on the brink of death. "I don't know. To me, you'll always be these two crazy stubborn kids who refused to let each other go even when the universe was trying to force you to." She stood up, shaking but with a soft smile on her face. "And things like that don't just end. Not like this."

She patted his cheek and he took a moment to lean into it, to appreciate her coming back to him, as always. Her never leaving him, no matter what.

"I'm going to make sure Amanda isn't bleeding out in the kitchen. Call me if there are any changes", she said.

Harvey fell back onto his chair, feeling the silence surrounding him the second Jessica closed the door behind her. Her words about him and Donna were still ringing in his ears, words he knew he would carry around with him for a long time. His eyes travelled up Donna's frame, from her powder blue dress up to her pale neck, which was almost completely covered by the high ruched collar, until they rested on her face.

She was lying on her stomach, but he'd been careful to move her head to the side when he'd put her down earlier, so it almost looked like she was sleeping. Her lips were pressed together, eyes shut tight and her hair was finally loose and wavy again, like it'd been before she turned. Right at this moment, he wished for nothing but her to be human again, because then the poison wouldn't have affected her. And she wouldn't have left them. And thinking about New Years Eve wouldn't make his chest tighten with regret and despair.

"Donna", he whispered, afraid to raise his voice above the bare minimum. "You gotta come back to us, okay?" A few of her locks had fallen in front of her face and he moved them aside with a hesitant stroke of his hand. "And I don't just mean you that have to wake up. Your family, your real family, misses you. Amanda, she's… so worried about you. And what about the kids, or Jessica?"

He paused, unsure how to go on. The fear of losing her and having her so close at the same time threatened to overwhelm him, making his eyes well up with tears. His fingers were tracing slow lines on her cheek. "What about me? Because after all that happened, I can't lose you, not to this; not to him. Don't let Stephen win. Don't let Neil be right, because I know he's not. I know you deserve to live. I know you are worthy because I— "

He felt some of his own tears wetting his lips and ignored the salty taste of it. "Don't do this to me, okay? I can't— I can't take this. Look at me, I'm a fucking mess without you, always have been. I need you to know that."

He was aware that he wouldn't have said the next words if she were awake. If she could've heart them, he'd never said it out loud. But like this, with her unconscious and next to him and his fear of having to live without her wrecking him more than he ever thought possible, it was suddenly easy to surrender to the truth.

"I love you, alright?", he said so quietly he almost couldn't hear it himself. "I love you so much. Still. Always."

She didn't hear him and he was thankful that she hadn't, but he still took her hand, wrapping all of his fingers around it after he kissed it. "Please, Donna. Just come back and I promise we'll figure the rest of it out."

Donna woke up a few minutes later.

.

You say that you love me
But you act like you don't
You used to adore me
Laughed at all of my jokes
Don't take this the wrong way
You put me in harm's way

New York, today

.

"Flowers?", Donna asked around the tip of her pen. Mike groaned. "Please no sunflowers."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm allergic them, and I'd rather not sneeze my way through my vows."

Donna grinned at the thought.

"There's also the small issue that some of these flowers can kill me, you know."

"Which one?"

He rolled his eyes. "Wolf's bane of course."

Her grin widened. "Sunflowers it is."

Mike rolled onto his stomach, almost falling off the deckchair in the process. "I hate you."

"Why are you helping with the wedding planning anyway? It's not like you're contributing anything bright."

He tried to keep his expression serious. "Because I've been dreaming about this day ever since I was a little boy and I want it to be perfect."

"Hey, asshole", a voice called from inside, drowning the loud snort Donna had given him in response. They turned their heads to the backdoor where Louis stood, holding a cardboard box and sweating profusely. "This is your move if I remember correctly."

"Your sharp mind never ceases to amaze me", Mike gave back dryly. Louis didn't seem to appreciate the humour. "So why", he continued in between breaths, "why the hell am I carrying your shit while you're out here on the terrace bickering about flowers."

"Well, you could get us some drinks if you wanna help instead of eavesdropping on a private conversation."

"Do I need to remind you that I don't need more than a twitch of my eyelid to make your body go up in flames? And neither does your pregnant fiance."

Mike got up from the chair with a drawn-out sigh. "Fine. We were just taking a little break, admiring the quietness and view of this place. So thanks for ruining the moment."

"You can do that for the rest of your life after today."

Donna flinched. It was barely visible, but Mike caught it and rested his curious eyes on her. She gave him a quick smile. "I'll just take another minute, if that's alright."

Mike waited for Louis to go back inside before he walked up next to her, lightly touching her shoulder. "Donna. You giving us this house, are you— ", he paused as if he was unsure how to go on, "are you certain it's the right call? We'd totally understand if you want to keep it, after all. Or just sell it."

Donna swallowed. "No. No, I love this place. I've missed this place. And I wanted it to stay in the family."

Mike's lips twitched. "And that means a lot. Still, it feels like it hurts you and Harvey to be here. Jessica too, sometimes. In a way, it feels like it's haunted. Not just by people; by feelings. I would hate for you to have that look in your eyes every time you come over."

"What look?"

"This one. You're not as good at hiding it as you think, and Harvey is even worse. If this is gonna be our home, I don't want you to suffer just by being here."

Donna hummed. Her eyes were gliding over the gardens slowly, carefully, trying to take it all in. "This used to be wide land", she murmured. Mike wasn't sure if she even registered that he was there, so he kept quiet and waited for her to go on. "There were trees and fences and grass as far as you could see. Eventually, there were flowers everywhere because Adam made this place a tiny paradise full of colours and smells in a spectrum I had never seen. It was his way of dealing with the fact that leaving his coven depowered him gravely. And distracting himself from feeling guilty for Amanda being cut off from her family, I suppose. He used the magic he had left to connect with the nature and allow the purest things to grow. The result was…" She licked her lips before pressing them together and starting again. "It felt like an oasis in the middle of the most populated place on earth, wild nature and oriental scents mixed with cultured roses and vegetables, like a safe haven that allowed you to breathe whenever you came here. The children adored it, I've lost count of the amount of times I watched them running through the high grass, playing fetch with the dogs or hiding from each other, getting their clothes and faces dirty until Amanda scolded them for being so wild."

Her eyes finally came to a rest on his face. Mike wondered if she could figure what he was thinking, if she could see how his head was spinning because of all the new information she'd just given him, especially about Adam and his heritage. Her look was considerate, hiding her emotions in a way her voice couldn't. "This is home, Mike. I don't have many places that I am attached to, I've been on the run for too long to ever settle down for more than a few months. But coming back here made me understand what home even feels like. Every inch of this house is filled with memories, and for now most of them are drowned by the things that happened right before it burned to the ground. These nightmares that I can't get rid of, that I'll never get rid of, they don't leave room for anything else. But you see, that's the point. Day by day, they will start to make more room. There'll be new memories, good ones of us and your little troublemaker running around, running through this garden, and Louis wanting to strangle you, and Jessica actually strangling you if you're not careful."

Mike chuckled.

"So eventually, it won't matter as much anymore that the fields are gone and Adam's flowers were burned and that the wood of this terrace makes me want to cry because I can hear Adelia's footsteps on them whenever I sit here. At the end of the day, it will always be home, you know."

"Okay", Mike said, more emotional than he'd like to admit. There was a light pressure on Donna's shoulder again. "I don't know what happened all those years ago, but I am still sorry, Donna. I know you've lost your fair share."

Donna tried breathing out evenly and nodded before standing up and turning her back on the garden that looked nothing like the paradise she had just described to Mike. "Where's Harvey?"

"I don't know, actually. The last time I saw him was an hour ago when we split up at the old apartment. He said he had an important errant to run but I have no idea what it is."

She frowned. "Neither do I. That's a bit weird, don't you think?"

Mike gave her a soft, understanding smile. "I'm sure he's just trying to avoid the next moving phase: building all the furniture again after spending days demounting it. Don't worry too much about it, we don't have to know where he'll be every second of every day."

There was a clash in the hall, followed by an even louder curse and Rachel yelling, "Mike!"

The man in question cringed. "On my way, sweetheart."

Donna chuckled, but she couldn't help the weird, anxious pit in her stomach that told her something was not right.

.

Harvey's face fell the moment he stepped into the giant, empty room. "What the fuck do you think you're doing here?"

His heart was racing, eyes frantically searching the place for a weapon or a way to escape. He should've known. When he'd found the note asking him to meet here, he should've known it was Neil and not Donna that had written it. It hadn't made any sense in the first place, her wanting to meet up here when they'd just seen each other at Mike's place.

He should've seen this coming.

Neil had always loved leaving notes behind. It gave him some sick kind of satisfaction, like he'd gotten the first and last word at the same time. Harvey observed the man in front of him, careful not to miss the slightest detail about his outer appearance. If he wanted to make it out alive, the tiniest hint of a weakness was crucial. The hunter looked just like he had when Harvey last saw him, the same hard facial features, the same light brown hair that had a hint of red in them, the same sharp nose and small eyes that made him look like a raptor; the same smug smile playing around his lips.

He leaned against the door frame and quirked up a brow, his entire posture emanating pure arrogance. "Good day to you too, Harvey."

Harvey leapt forward, crashing into the doorframe the next second.

"Don't be obvious", Neil snarled, now near the big glass façade that led to a breath-taking view over the city.

"You have some nerve showing your face here", Harvey said, forcing himself to stay calm. Neil was right, attacking him out of rage was too predictable and left him one step behind. Neil already had the element of surprise on his side because he'd lured him here.

"I was nearby and thought why not check in on my almost brother-in-law. See how things are going. If Donna is behaving herself accordingly or if Jessica still has to babysit you two."

Harvey's hands were shaking. "Don't say her name."

Neil let out a laugh. "Don't be childish Harvey, what happened in the past happened in the past. Bygones."

Don't respond, Harvey told himself. Don't respond to his provocations. It's what he wants. It's how he wins.

"What do you want?"

Neil hummed. "You mean despite wanting to see my dear sister?"

Harvey clenched his jaw so hard he was afraid his teeth would break. "We both know you don't give a shit about Donna. You never have."

"You know nothing about my relationship with Donna", Neil replied casually. "You've never understood my family and you never will."

"I've spend years with your family."

Neil tsked. "You spend years with Amanda and that deadbeat husband of hers. And with Donna. Only people that ran from their family obligations. And look where it got them!"

He evaded Harvey's next attack with a quick, fluid motion and Harvey had to be careful not to crash face first into the window, bitterly missing the days Neil had been human.

"God, it's gotten even easier to provoke you, I didn't think that was possible."

Harvey tried to hide the tremble in his voice. "How dare you even mentioning them?"

"Oh, there's a lot of people I could mention that suffered because of you." He lifted his forefinger. "Wait, let me rephrase that: people that suffered because you refused to let Donna go. And you never learn, do you? You're still here, playing happy couple with her and your new pet family, telling yourself this time will be different. Even after Scottie."

Harvey closed his eyes. "Why don't you tell me what you want before I rip your throat out?"

"Well, I mainly came here because I could. Because you're so easy to be lured anywhere. It's rather pathetic, really. But I also wanna know how you and Jessica do it."

"Do what?"

"Take Donna's betrayal and just… move on from it." For the first time since Harvey'd walked into the room there seemed to be a hint of genuine emotion in Neil's voice.

"Donna never betrayed us", Harvey shot back immediately.

Neil scoffed. "Donna betrays everyone close to her. It's like a default setting."

"You're so full of shit."

"Am I?", Neil raised his brows. "Can you honestly tell me you didn't feel betrayed when she came back after you thought she was dead for over a century?"

"That feeling went both ways", Harvey murmured through gritted teeth.

"Still, she could've reached out to you, and yet she never did. And then, she's suddenly back." Neil observed his tense posture for a moment. "And you know what I think? I bet you still have no idea why she came back."

"She came back because of you."

"Oh really? Because I thought you and Jessica were rotting somewhere at the bottom of the ocean until she led me here."

"Why would I even consider believing you and not her?"

Neil gave him another piercing look. "Maybe you should finally start warming up to the idea, given your past."

"Listen, you psychotic, nauseating prick, I'm giving you one last chance to say what you wanna say before I kill you right there on the spot."

"You know what?", Neil huffed, "You're right. She had more than a couple of opportunities to tell you and she never did. So who am I to withhold crucial information."

A tight purpose. Harvey balled his hand into a fist.

"We knew."

He rolled his eyes. "Could you be any less specific?"

The hunter's smile was elusive. "We knew, you pathetically poor excuse of a monster. The night we attacked in 1897, when the chandelier fell and you almost fed on Donna, she told us what happened."

Blood was rushing through Harvey's ears, so loud that he almost didn't catch what Neil said next. "She came home that night and gave me your name. Dropped Jessica's too, because she suspected you were a pair. Do you get it now? None of it was real. You were her mission. She used you to gather information, and then when she wanted out, she used you to make herself immortal. That's why I killed her. She betrayed us, our family, and she betrayed you."

Harvey still hadn't moved.

"It's her default setting", Neil repeated, and now there was anger seeping into his voice. "She tried to force me to keep quiet after she turned, blackmailing me into keeping her secret from you and your secret from our family. But it all became too much and I don't think I need to tell you who paid the price for her lies." Harvey just wished he would stop talking. Each word hit him like a knife stabbing into his chest.
"And when she felt like I was on her trail again, she lured me here, to you. She brought me here so that she'd stand a chance against me; so that I'd be outnumbered or maybe even back down. But that", he took a deep breath and let out a laugh, "that is never gonna happen. You may have chosen Donna's side a long time ago, Harvey, but she has never chosen yours. She chose to save her own skin. Again. And again. She can't help herself." He shrugged. "I grew up with her, trust me, I would know. She is loyal to no one but herself. Once a backstabber, always a backstabber."

Harvey swallowed. Tried to focus, gather a thought, anything that would prove Neil was lying. But in his heart, he knew he wasn't. Things he wondered about, things he felt shame for suspecting in his dark moments with Donna came back to him, and it made sense. It all fell into place.

He felt like he couldn't breathe. "Why are you telling me this?", was all he managed to choke out.

"Mainly to see that look on your face." Neil chuckled darkly. "It's like your world is crumbling down right here in front of me, I would've paid to see that."

Harvey just shook his head, utterly defeated. "You sick fuck."

"And you're nothing but a blind, lovesick fool. Always have been."

"So what now, huh? You're gonna kill me?" Harvey spread out his arms. "Go ahead and do it, I don't give a shit!"

"You would like that, wouldn't you?", Neil said viciously, pulling a thick, partially silver-plated stake out of his suit jacket. "For me to drive that through your heart and end your suffering." Harvey didn't even blink when he put the pointed end against his chest. "But what you're feeling right now, that feeling of desperation, that hurt of loving someone who turns their back on you because they couldn't care less about you; I've been feeling that for most of my existence."

The pressure on the stake increased. Neil's hands were shaking, but his voice was still calm when his eyes finally found Harvey's. "I'm going to kill you some day, Harvey. Probably someday soon. Jessica first, just for the fun of it. But for now, I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to drown in it like I know you will, and I want you to see Donna for what she really is. She doesn't deserve even the tiniest bit of love that you have ever given her. She bleeds you dry of it if you let her. Everyone she ever called family loved her and look how it ended for each and every one of them."

He shrugged nonchalantly and took a step back. "I'm giving you and Jessica a day to leave before I come for Donna. Nothing more. And believe me when I say that the next time we see each other, I won't show you mercy anymore."

Harvey closed his eyes when he felt the stake moving away from his chest. He didn't need to open them to know the room was empty.

He was alone.

.

Jessica let out a loud, honest laugh. "Rachel, please release the poor man."

Rachel's smirk was merciless. "Nah. He was lying on a deckchair outside while I was levitating our goddamn closet up the stairs. He deserves this."

Jessica observed a sweating and muttering Mike pushing himself closer to his destination step by step. "You do have a point."

"You're doing great honey", Rachel called after her fiancé, taking a sip from her tea cup. Mike threw something back at her, which ended up coming out as an inaudible muffle.

"Almost done", Louis wheezed, carrying the last box from the moving van outside. "Where does this— "

"Kitchen", Rachel ordered with a snap of her fingers.

"Where the everloving fuck is Harvey?", Mike panted, hands resting on his sides.

On cue, Jessica's phone rang. "You're alive", she said, "Donna's been…" She trailed off, her facial features hardening immediately. Donna, who had just come in, knew the expression all too well. There was a problem.

A big one.

"What's going on?"

Jessica didn't take her eyes off her. "We talked about this Harvey, we should have those discussions tog— "

Another pause.

"Okay."

The anxious feeling in Donna's stomach grew into panic.

"I said okay", Jessica snapped. "I will be there as fast as I can."

"What did he say", Donna demanded to know the moment she hung up.

"I should go."

"Jessica", Donna growled, cutting her way off before the other woman could walk any further. Jessica held her furious stare. "He said Teddy doesn't know."

Mike snorted. "I'm sorry, what?!"

Donna straightened her back. "I'm coming with you."

"No", Jessica replied, grabbing her purse from the counter and facing her with a stern look on her face.

Donna felt her cheeks heating up. "This is too serious to argue about; he wouldn't have said… that if it wasn't something big.

"I know."

"Then don't you dare— "

"That's enough." Everything in Jessica's posture radiated dominance and superiority, but there was a glimmer of doubt in her eyes, something that made Donna understand what was really going on. It wasn't Jessica that didn't want her there. It was Harvey.

Now it felt like poison was burning through her veins.

Jessica shot her a warning look. "You will stay behind, in this house and protect this family. Our family. That is an order." Donna swallowed. "Do I make myself clear?"

There really wasn't another option. Of course she could waste their time and fight Jessica, who wasn't even her real enemy right now, or she could obey.

Both choices felt more like grave mistakes.

After a tense few moments, Donna bowed her head slightly and stepped aside. "As you wish."

Jessica made her way to the door immediately. "I will call as soon as I can", she said, and then she was gone.

"Donna", Rachel whispered, absently stroking her growing belly, "What was that?"

"Who's Teddy?", Mike asked.

"It's nothing." Donna sat down on the sofa, intertwining her shaking fingers. "It's a code phrase, for emergencies."

"What kind of emergency?"

"The bad kind."

"Meaning?"

Donna met her best friends' eyes and saw her own fear mirrored in them.

"Life threatening danger."

.

Jessica had barely set foot into her office when she was already pressed up against the wall.

"Tell me you didn't know", Harvey barked, his face distorted by pure rage and pain, exposed fangs, bloodshot eyes and his veins dark as night around them.

"You better take your damn hands off me before I make you, boy", Jessica warned lowly, twisting his hand behind his back. Harvey let her go quickly, cursing and turning around before he started pacing.

"What has gotten into you?"

"You must've known", he rambled, running his fingers through his hair and almost pulling some out in the process. "How could you not have; you always knew everything. Maybe that's why— ", he stopped abruptly and looked at her as if for the first time. "Is that the real reason you left her behind? Is this why— the letter?"

"Harvey! You're not making any sense. Sit down, calm yourself and talk to me."

Harvey still kept his distance, his eyes jumping around the room like the ones of a caged animal. Jessica squinted her eyes. He was a mess, full of conflicting emotions he couldn't control. She needed to get him back on track if she ever wanted to know what happened. "Are you going to offend me by saying you don't trust me?"

He gave her an appraising look, but then his posture crumbled and he let himself fall into the chair behind him. "I just came from seeing Neil."

"You— ", Jessica licked her lips. Her anger was so immediate and present that it almost felt like he could touch it. "You met him without telling me?"

"He left me a note and I thought… I thought it was Donna."

"Why would Donna leave you a note? On the day Mike and Rachel are moving, nonetheless?"

"I don't know, okay?", Harvey said exasperatedly. "I didn't think much about it."

"Yeah, clearly."

"Look, the note said to meet up at the Waldorf and when I was there, it was already too late."

Jessica took a deep breath. "Well, he obviously didn't want you dead or you would be, so what did he want?" A sudden thought crossed her mind. "Does he know about Rachel?"

"No, not yet I think. She's been cloaking herself pretty well. No, he just wanted to gloat, about Scottie, about being a couple of steps ahead, about how we keep dragging people into danger. And… about Donna."

"You better have not listened to a word that came out of his mouth. He's trying to divide us and we won't let him."

Harvey gave her a long look. A look Jessica knew, a look that made her blood boil.

She tried to keep her voice neutral. "Are you telling me one meeting is all that son of a bitch needs to have you doubting her again? After we've spent months on mending our fences, months of rebuilding?"

"I'm not doubting her anymore. I know I will never trust her again."

Jessica's throat felt dry. "What did he tell you?"

"He told me what really happened that New Year's. Why he killed her."

"Go on."

"It was all an act from the beginning. The Paulsens knew who we were from the get-go and Donna spied on us for years to gather information."

The silence that followed was heavy, so heavy they almost choked on it. Jessica could only stare at the man in front of her, the man who had been her only true confidant for more than two centuries and the realisation hit her that this was it.

This was the end. She had always feared that it would end like this because deep down inside, she had known. She wasn't stupid, she wasn't blind. She'd known and she'd accepted Donna anyway. "Do you— ", she cleared her throat. "Do you know when she told them?"

"Before the Bradley Martin Ball."

Jessica nodded, feeling numb. Looking back now, it had been blatantly obvious. Donna's loyalty towards them had come out of nowhere and Jessica had refused to see it because she hadn't wanted to. Harvey had been blinded by his feelings, she'd been painfully aware of that, and she'd looked away because the thought of Donna being included in their family had been too tempting to resist. Both strategically and emotionally. It still was.
The urge was still there, this urge to defend her, to talk things through with her; to give her one last chance.

Because if Donna couldn't be redeemed, there was no hope for any of them.

Jessica coughed lightly, but her voice was still thick with emotion when she raised it again. "So, she told them before she really knew us." She fidgeted uneasily in her chair. "What if she has been trying make up for that ever since?"

Harvey watched her silently for a long time. Usually, he would be angry and snap at her, but it wouldn't do him any good. He knew exactly what she was doing. She was negotiating, doing what she'd always done when it came to Donna. And yes, under other circumstances Harvey would find it irritating and infuriating, but this time was different. When it came down to it, he understood why Jessica was so hellbent on saving what couldn't be saved. He understood being unwilling to accept that this would break them for good. And it would break them for good because realising they had never been a family hurt too much to bear.

"No", he said eventually, shaking his head. "Don't do that. Apparently, you didn't know either and I believe you, but this isn't something you can fix by talking me out of it. She has to answer for this. She has to leave, immediately."

Jessica bit her lip, an anxious move that was very unlike her. "But why did she even come back?", she wondered out loud. Harvey swallowed, tasting something bitter on his tongue. "Neil suggested she led him here because he was on her track again."

She snorted derisively. "He was always on her track."

Harvey raised his brows. "We don't know that."

"Yes, we do."

"No, we don't", he persevered. "She told us, we can't know if she wasn't lying about that, too."

Another thought entered the forefront of Jessica's mind, a thought that had been there for months and that she hadn't been able to push aside no matter how hard she tried. A reason. Maybe the only reason that justified some of Donna's actions. The reason Jessica herself chose this firm in the first place, following a hunch that grew into more than that when Donna had followed them here.

Harvey spotted the change in her eyes. "What?"

"I need to talk to her."

"Why?"

She hesitated. She couldn't tell him, not now, not like this. Not while he was in this state. She didn't have a lick of proof besides her intuition, and even if she was right, it wasn't her information to share. She could make things even worse if she was wrong and the consequences could be catastrophic.

So instead, she evaded his question. "She wouldn't have come back for that."

"We don't kn— "

"Harvey", Jessica interrupted him sternly, finding his eyes again, "despite what she did, despite her unclear intentions, we do know her, whether she wanted us to or not. All those years we spent at her side don't erase themselves just because of her motivations. We know that she would never choose to do something this irrational, this risky if she hadn't been scared out of her mind. Her coming here back was desperate, she sought out help like she never had, not even after she turned. There must be something behind it, something that tethers her to us and to this place."

After another long pause, Harvey dropped his head with a light sigh. "At this point, I don't care. I can't bring myself to care anymore. I can't— ", his voice broke and he roughly wiped over his left eye with the back of his hand. "I can't do this anymore. Trying to forgive her, to move on from her lies and betrayals only to find another lie right beneath it. I'm done with all of it. So please, don't ask me to try. This would break us apart and we can't let that happen. I don't have anyone except for you."

Jessica desperately tried to keep her head clear, although she couldn't stop herself from reaching out and putting a hand on his trembling forearm. "Okay, Harvey", she agreed quickly, "I won't push you. And I understand your point. But I'm asking you to trust me enough to let me talk to her first before you do anything."

Breathing out through his nose, Harvey nodded slightly.

And if Donna hadn't been waiting in his office half an hour later, he would've been keen on keeping that promise.

He'd just wanted to get a drink. None of what followed would've happened if she hadn't waited for him, leaning against his desk, her fingers drumming a slow rhythm on the surface. Harvey's pace quickened when he saw her. Moving past her tense body, he went to the back of the room to get himself a glass of scotch.

"You should not have come."

She scoffed. "Did you expect anything else? You give Jessica our code for an emergency and then have the audacity to ask her to leave me behind?" Her hands were shaking when she pushed herself up. "I thought we were past this."

Harvey gulped down his drink and poured himself another, knowing full well that the alcohol would only fuel his rage. "Yeah, me too", he chuckled humourlessly. "I also thought we were past your bullshit, Donna, but life is full of surprises, isn't it?"

"Excuse me?"

He fixed her down with his stare. "I had a nice chat with Neil."

Donna froze. For a moment, she thought she'd throw up. Her heart was beating wildly in her chest, desperate to keep her upright when the rest of her body couldn't. All the softness had drained from Harvey's face and – even worse – out of his eyes. There was no hurt, no desperation, not even disappointment. Just cold anger. She knew what Neil had told him before he even raised his voice again.

"He told me about what happened. What really happened, I mean. What you never told us." He clenched his jaw. "I'd love to know how someone can possibly be as cold-blooded and self-centred as you are 'cause hell", another dry chuckle, "I've met a lot of fucked up people in my life, but I've never come across… this. This lack of integrity, the complete lack of loyalty. You should tell me how you do it sometimes, maybe if I just step giving a shit about anyone I'll sleep better at night."

She took a step forward, but he immediately backed away. "Harvey— "

"I don't wanna hear your excuses, because there are none. I just wanna hear it from you. I want you to admit it."

She was visibly shaking and it was a relief for him to realise that it didn't make him feel guilty. Because this was not his betrayal, it was hers; this was her burden to bear, and he wanted to make sure she'd feel every single second of bearing it. At the end of the day, it wouldn't come even close to the pain he felt.

Donna tried to force herself not to cry, to stop her body from making herself even more vulnerable than she already was, but the tears were still spilling out of her eyes without her control. "When I met you", she stumbled over her words and had to try again, "When I met you, I was close to succumb to my family's legacy. I'd lost Amanda, my brother was getting worse by the day, my mum— ", she halted once more. "I had no one, I had nothing, and then you and Jessica came into my life. Suddenly I had a way out, I could feel it right away. But then we were attacked right before the ball – by my own brother nonetheless – and I saw your face changing. My entire life I'd been hunting things like you. It's all I ever was. It was my obligation to tell them, especially because they were beginning to shut me out, which put me in danger. I barely knew you, and I turned my back on them the moment we became a family."

Harvey only seemed to have registered one sentence. "Hunting things like me?"

Her eyes widened.

"You really are your father's daughter, aren't you? Still, after all this time."

She shook her head. "That's not what I meant, that was just my mindset back then. I've changed, you know I've changed. You've been there." She took a step forward out of sheer desperation. "You've seen it."

"From where I'm standing, you didn't change at all. You just started to believe your own lies."

"You can't mean that."

Harvey slapped the frame so hard the glass door started shaking. "Yes, I can", he yelled.

Donna flinched, backing away with genuine fear in her eyes at his outburst of anger.

"Because you never fucking told us", Harvey went on, still screaming from the top of his lungs, glad that Jessica had gone home already so she couldn't interrupt them like she usually did. "You had years, Donna. Decades. You came back after a century and still kept it a secret."

"I couldn't", Donna choked out, now moving towards his office door when he came closer. "How could I have told you after all this time when I knew you'd never forgive me?"

"So you'd rather use us to shield yourself from Neil's revenge? You'd rather betray us again by leading him here than be honest for once in your goddamn life?"

"That's not what h— "

"Oh, spare me", he spat out. "You knew he'd come after you and you came here anyway."

"That's not why I came back", Donna bit back, finally getting over her shellshocked state.

"Then why did you?"

She escaped his stare and swallowed. He took her silence as a confession.

"Exactly. So, this really is the reason you came back?", Harvey said, his voice vibrating with suppressed emotions, as if his last bit of restraint could break any second. "You came back to make sure Neil couldn't beat you to it? To cover for your ass and leading him right to us in the process?"

"Harvey, I— "

"Meaning that everything that happened since is your fault. Getting Rachel, Mike and Louis involved. All that bullshit you dug up from the past that complicated things between me and Jessica. We almost died fighting of William's vampires because you were too much of a coward to tell us the whole truth."

He paused when another thought dawned on him. She saw it the moment it crossed his mind and hastily started approaching him again.

"Scottie would still be alive if it weren't for you."

"Please— "

"Her blood is on your hands!", Harvey yelled. "I knew I shouldn't have trusted you when you came back, I knew there was more to the story because there always is with you, isn't there?"

Donna bit her lip. "I understand that you are hurt and furious with me right now, but don't act like I'm the only one that kept secrets and messed up since we've known each other."

"I was completely honest with you when you came back, don't you dare shift the blame onto me."

"You wanted to kill me, Harvey", Donna bellowed.

"Yes I did, and you know what? Maybe I should've. Maybe I should've trusted my gut, because it told me that you betrayed us before you even set one foot into the firm."

"You wanna know the truth?", she finally snapped, turning her guilt into anger, her voice finally as loud as his, "You were asking for it. You made that decision not to trust me when I came back and you were looking for reasons not to every single day since. Congratulations, you found a good one. You found out what I did over a century ago and no matter what happened since, you decided the judge me based solely on that betrayal. I hope you're happy. I hope you can go live your life now, knowing you were right about me all along, knowing you should've never trusted me in the first place."

Harvey came closer now, throwing a stack of files from his table because he didn't know what else to do with his anger. "You have some nerve pretending like I'm overreacting. But I guess that's what you're good at: pretending."

"And I guess you're good at being a hypocritical asshole that can't separate the past from the present."

The air exploded around them while Harvey screamed something back at her, something she could barely understand because she kept yelling at him as well. Their voices blended together until they couldn't tell them apart anymore, and yet they kept going.

And then, suddenly, the tension snapped. Suddenly, they weren't fighting anymore. There was no more screaming, no more accusations, because Harvey leapt forward and crashed his mouth against hers. The vehemence of his kiss nearly swept Donna off her feet and had the intended impact: her mind went completely blank. And her heart took over.

Harvey had always been ashamed of that part of himself that had wished to sleep with her after she turned into a vampire. Even after her death, even when he mourned her, the thoughts of how different they could've been together sneaked into his conscience, no matter how hard he tried to push them away. Because if there was one thing he ever regretted about being with her while she was human, it was that he didn't dare to be rough with her. He had to hold himself back because of his fear of hurting her.
The realization that he could finally act on his darkest desire hit him with a force that blended every other thought out of his mind.

Finally, after all this time, there was no more pretending.

Finally, there were no more lies.

No more holding back.

And it showed. Not just because of him. Not just because more than a century had passed since their last kiss. It was also because of her.

She wasn't holding back, either.

She gave in. She not only reciprocated his kiss, she was the one to take it one step further and touch him. She was the one that bit his lip after he had smashed her against his door, almost shattering the glass in the process. She'd already taken off his jacket while he was still busy sliding his hands down her waist. She destroyed every bit of restraint left in his body when she suddenly took over and pushed him against the edge of his small glass table, apparently still battling for dominance.

Maybe the fight wasn't over after all.

Harvey carelessly threw every object in his reach off the table and placed Donna on top of it. Their eyes met for a dazzling, apparitional second before he slid his hand behind her neck and pulled her face towards him, kissing her again, slower this time, more aware of what he was doing. He could taste his own blood in her mouth, and his instincts took over when he bit her lip to have a bit of hers, the taste of it nearly driving him insane. Instead of pulling away, she clasped her legs around his waist, closing the last bit of distance between them. His mind was feverish, unable to catch up with his actions, like he was in some vivid dream full of parted mouths, heavy breathing, blood and sweaty, messed up hair.

His mouth left hers and trailed down her neck, taking in her scent like a drug. She was wearing her perfume again.

"Donna", he breathed, his fangs appearing for a split second, grazing her skin.

Donna's eyes snapped open the moment she heard him say her name. It was like someone violently yanked her back to reality. Back to the office she was in, one step away from doing something she would definitely regret later on.

"No", she said firmly and pushed him away. He looked at her, still dazed, pupils dilated, utterly confused by her sudden rejection.

"What do you think you're doing?", she asked him, anger and fear and vulnerability all melting into a dangerous mix of emotions.

He reached for her arm and everything in her screamed to get out of the room as fast as possible. Everything in her screamed to keep her composure until she was alone, but she felt the wave of anxiety building up in her stomach, ready to break out and swallow her whole.

She didn't intent on slapping him. It happened before she knew what she was doing. It happened in a shaky, unexpected rush, much like the kiss they had just shared.

"Don't you ever touch me again", she hissed before she rushed out of the office, leaving him there with a heaving chest and the realisation of what they'd just done slowly beginning to dawn on him.

.

well... there you go. I have no excuses for this, except maybe that the last scene was the entire reason I started this fic more than two years ago. this was the first scenario i had in my head, this was one of the first scenes I've ever written for this story and I've re-read and edited it so many times since, at this point i'm just happy to get it out there. I truly hope you like it, and that you won't hate me for ending it the way that I did. they're just not there yet.

other than that, we got that complete mess of a flashback that I am truly sorry for, but there was no way in my mind for harvey to actually admit how he feels to a concious donna. again, they're definitely not there, yet.

I hope you liked this chapter, I really do. drop a line or two if you did and let me know what you think! x