VICTORIA DIDN'T GET out of bed even though the sun was streaming through the windows and she knew it was mid-morning. She buried her head under the covers, giving in to the only sanctuary she had left.

She opened bleary eyes several hours later as Tony left a desperate-sounding message on her answering machine, checking to see if she could work an emergency shift that night. She squinted at her watch, it was three in the afternoon, and as much as she wanted to, she knew she couldn't stay in bed forever.

At least at the Black Dog she'd be able to distract herself and not focus on what had happened with Gabriel or with Christian. She showered and dressed, missing Leto terribly. His gift for comfort would have been useful, but they hadn't exactly been on the best of terms since he'd found out about Christian. She'd been the one to suggest that they take a break and he stay at Holly's. She concentrated on healing, taking slow long breaths as she dressed, wishing fervently that she could just go back to bed instead.

Tony gave her a grateful smile when she arrived. The Dog was short-staffed again, but it wasn't too crowded, she noticed thankfully, as she hopped behind the bar. Her stomach sank as she registered who was in the far right corner. Seriously, if she had noticed his car out front, she wouldn't have thought twice about calling Tony from the parking lot and canceling. But she knew that she couldn't leave him stranded now that she was already here. Victoria bit her lip and put her head down. She had a job to do.

She tried to pass the time joking with the other people in the bar as best as she could, but she couldn't shake the sour, sick feeling that rested in her stomach. Every time she heard the loud laughter from that corner, she had to force herself to not look in that direction. Even Tony noticed that she wasn't her usual jovial self and came over to ask her if she was all right.

"I'm fine, just a little stomach bug I think," she said. "Don't worry. I'll still be able to help you out."

Distracted by his parting comment about his special cure for stomach bugs involving Jagermeister, a loud peal of laughter drew her attention and her eyes flicked over automatically. They locked with a pair of cold black ones and her heart froze in her chest at the hatred she saw reflected there. She couldn't pull away from Gabriel's stare, and in slow motion she watched him pull a willing Charla onto his lap and kiss her, all while staring at Victoria.

It was ugly, sordid. She felt sick, her breath coming in short silent gasps—she could feel his lips on hers, the violence of them grinding into hers, bruising and punishing. He smiled.

Victoria dragged her eyes away with considerable difficulty, grasping the top of the bar for support, as she felt curiously weak and almost drained from the effort it had taken to pull away. Black spots danced in her head. She sank to the floor, assuming that it was stress from the shock of yesterday's confrontation with him. Without warning, a wave of nausea overcame her. She started retching as she ran for the employee's bathroom. She splashed some water on her face and heard the door open as she wiped her face with some paper towel.

"I'm fine, Tony, just need five minutes," she said, not bothering to look up.

"Really? I wouldn't quite say that you're fine."

Victoria's head snapped up warily. She didn't know how much more she could take before she cracked. She gritted her teeth and swallowed, her throat dry.

"This is the employee's bathroom," she said in a flat, emotionless voice. Gabriel nodded smiling. It was an ugly smile, much the same as the one he'd worn earlier.

"I know, so it's not like we'll be disturbed," he said, stepping closer. "So was that good for you?"

"If you're talking about the grotesque thing with the kiss that you did, then no," she said, swallowing the bile stinging her throat. His eyes narrowed.

"Grotesque, was it? Does Devereux do it better then?" He stepped closer and Victoria braced herself for attack, not taking her eyes off him. "Shall we have a demonstration and compare?" Gabriel suggested with a hideous grin, stepping forward at the same time and grabbing her upper arms with brute force before she could move away.

"I wouldn't get any closer if I were you," said a silky voice at the door. Both Victoria and Gabriel automatically turned in the direction of the menacing voice.

"And what are you going to do about it, Devereux?" Gabriel said. Victoria's eyes were wide as she silently pleaded with Christian to not lose control.

Please Christian, not here. He's not worth it. Please ...

Every inch of his frame was tense with barely restrained fury. She knew he could kill Gabriel without even breaking a sweat. Salvation came from an unexpected source as Tony's rounded bulk filled the doorway, shouldering past Christian and wielding a baseball bat nonchalantly.

"He's not going to do anything, but I am," he said coolly, tapping the bat in his left hand. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way." Gabriel's eyes narrowed and a muscle clenched in his jaw. Tony noticed and smiled. "You can make my day, kid. The cops are on their way. Your call."

Gabriel raised his hands in the air and grinned, the smile nowhere near his eyes.

"Sorry, it's just a little misunderstanding. I'll leave," he said.

Tony didn't look convinced but Victoria nodded to him to let Gabriel leave without a scene and Tony allowed Gabriel to walk by.

As Gabriel walked past Christian, Gabriel glared at him from head to toe. The threat in his body language was unmistakable. What Christian had on Gabriel in height, Gabriel made up for in sheer bulk, and the mutual dislike that flared between them was intense. Christian didn't bat an eyelash and Victoria remained frozen until Gabriel sauntered out into the bar. By the time they came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, Gabriel and his entourage had already left.

"What made you come?" she asked Christian.

"Just a feeling that you needed me," he said, and then silently, did something happen last night?

Gabriel saw us ... kissing. Her gaze fluttered from his lips to the floor. He was ... angry.

I sensed something after I left but I thought it was because of me. When I felt it again just before, I knew that something wasn't right. So I came to find you.

"Tori, you okay?" Tony asked, interrupting their silent exchange. She nodded, managing a weak smile. She closed her eyes as a wave of dizziness overcame her and she sagged against Christian.

Tony met Christian's eyes above her head.

"Can you take her home?" he asked.

"No problem," Christian said.

Christian pulled up to her apartment, and neither of them made any move to get out, sitting silently in the car. She leaned toward him, her heart in her eyes.

"Thank you, Christian. I'm glad you came and ... I'm glad you're here now," she said softly. "I need to tell you something."

He turned to face her, his voice quiet but compassionate.

"Victoria, this doesn't change anything. What you did was the right thing. We can't be together. We shouldn't. That kiss was—"

"Don't even say it," she said. "Don't you understand now? I don't want anyone else! I've been lying to myself all along. Christian, how could I be with anyone else other than you?"

"You should be with someone like you, young—"

"Someone like Gabriel? We both saw where that got me."

"Victoria, this cannot be good for you no matter what you think you know. I am still a danger to you in every possible way. I can't be with you, and you shouldn't be with me. We are from different worlds, and what we were doing was not only reckless, it was wrong." His voice was dead, and if Victoria hadn't seen the agony in his eyes, she would have believed every hateful word that had left his lips. But she knew what he was doing—he was pushing her away.

"I already fear for my life just because of who I am, you think adding a little inconsequential vampire to the equation will change any of that?" She paused and her eyes went strangely blank as if something had occurred to her. "Or is it that you just don't want me?" she asked in a strangled voice.

"How could you possibly think that?" he said. "It's not you ..." He reached for her hands, and she pulled back, her face cold but her eyes bright with suppressed tears.

"That's it, isn't it? It's me. I'm just too young, too stupid, right?" she said. "I could never be as beautiful as that blond vampire woman, could I?"

In that instant, the obscure memory became clear, the one that had eluded her ever since she had first seen the blond woman—she had seen her when Christian had first let her go into his mind, into his memories. She was someone who had been close to him! More than close. Of course! The hot rush of understanding was like a blow to her stomach. They'd been lovers.

Christian couldn't help it, he started laughing, a derisive, humorless sound that echoed horribly in the car. "What does Lena have to do with anything?" he said, his confusion genuine.

"Nothing," Victoria said, jealousy exploding into every part of her. "Except that she's just beautiful and perfect and a vampire ... everything I am not and everything you could possibly want, so perfect for you. What was I then? Some kind of toy?"

"Victoria ... please ."

Christian didn't know how to respond to her comment about Lena as it had come from left field and he had no idea what prompted it. He held his hands out toward her and Victoria leaned away, her eyes flashing black fire.

"You're upset and you're not thinking clearly," he said, as if he were speaking to a skittish horse. Her eyes narrowed.

"Don't patronize me, Christian. I've never been clearer about anything in my life. But you! You can't even fight for what you want, even when it's right in front of you. Go ahead. Push me away if that makes you feel better about your own choices. Make this about me. And run back to your perfect little vampire existence without some gauche child like me screwing it up."

"Tori, that's not it at all. I can't give you what you want. Every time we touch, we have to think about how long the moment is going to last. We both hold back because we have to. You don't deserve that. You deserve someone who can love you without reservation, without fear of hurting you, someone within the rules."

"What do you know about what I want?"

"You told me, remember?" His eyes were gentle. "In the limousine on New Years Eve?"

"You know what I meant! It's not this or whatever you've decided is best for me!"

"You said you wanted more. I can't give you that, Victoria."

"Did you give it to her?"

Victoria stared at him, her eyes narrowed to slits as torturous thoughts of the beautiful woman kissing Christian spun wildly through her brain. They had been lovers, something she and Christian might never be!

"Victoria," he said. "Lena is no one important." Her eyes flared and he knew instinctively that he had said the wrong thing. For a moment, Christian felt real uncertainty as he stared into her black, black eyes. He could smell the sweetness of the blood, the magic amplifying its heady fragrance a hundred fold, and he could sense its wildness simmering just beneath her hard-won but fragile control of it. "I didn't mean—"

"No one important?" she said. "Is that why she is in so many of your memories? Don't lie to me! What do you want, Christian? Do you know what it is you want?"

Fight for me, please. Fight for us.

I can't, it's too dangerous. You could die.

I won't. We live by our own rules. Say the words, Christian.

The crossroads loomed. He felt it in her voice, she would let him go, if anything to save her battered pride, but there would be no going back. Pride would offer no second chances.

"What do you want?" she repeated.

Christian swallowed, his eyes tormented. He could never let her go.

"You. It's always been you."

The moment froze in time as her eyes grasped his, searching for truth in their depths, and Victoria let out the breath she'd unconsciously been holding. She didn't know who took the first step but it didn't matter as she slid into his arms, and then they were holding each other so tightly that neither of them could breathe. It felt like coming home.

They stood there for an eternity, neither of them noticing the lone figure standing in the darkest shadows across the street, silently watching, his face contorted with rage.