WARNING: contains slight spoilers regarding Dexter is Delicious. Proceed at your own discretion.

No next time-go away!

I confess I gawked, more at your sudden ferocity than at your demand. As I retreated into your deeper recesses, your voice followed me. And stay away!

You never fail to disappoint me, you weak, faithless creature. The years turn. The centuries dribble by in their endless flow. Lives and lifetimes come and go, and yet you remain the same.

Perhaps the fault is my own. I always hope for better from you, even knowing how you yearn for an impossible humanity. Dance with me, I whisper, and one day you do not. Inconstant wretch that you are, Dexter Morgan, you will dance again.

How do I know? I chuckled to myself, and lovingly I drew my fingertips through the deep pools of memory. Because things are different now.

You, Dexter Morgan, are more flexible than your previous self. Not flimsy aluminum, not by any means. More like a high-grade steel spring. Not the unmatched, unyielding blade you once were.

Reversed blade.

I scowled. Why do you have to do that? Why do you point your venom toward yourself? Your sakabatou was far from unique. Do you think your self-derision now, in your twenty-first century life, is anything new?

Just so. As I say, nothing about this situation is unique. Domestic bliss is always your undoing. Long ago, I would have resented your newfound family, on the grounds that they distract you from our true purpose. Experience has taught me otherwise, and I know that taking them from you is the surest way to turn your back on me for the rest of your life.

I am not willing to wait that long.

In our last existence, you quickly drenched us in enough blood to slake my thirst for decades. I was content to wait. Not this time. This time, that meddlesome Harry leashed you. This time, you feed me only when you must.

Go on, then, Dexter Morgan. Live for now as a slave to your human biology and the idiotic ideas of your society. You will remember what you are, in time.

For now, I intend to sulk.

Author's note: I blame my sister for this. She likes reincarnation stories.