“I’m sorry,” I said, shuffling in my seat awkwardly, as I somberly looked over Isaac’s downtrodden expression, before shifting my gaze to the swirling pool of liquid that sat at the very bottom of my drink, in the dimly lit bar.

  “Now you know our plight,” Isaac affirmed, before sitting quietly again, the two of us left in the corner, while the rest of the patrons, though sparing, had found reprieve for the night.

  “We’ve ascertained ways to manage this curse,” he continued, fingering the bracelet at his wrist, “Mother with the largest contribution.” He sighed. “Yet still, we forge on in this never ending battle.”

  I remained silent for a moment, compiling my own thoughts from the long story that I'd heard, despite it being abridged in various states. “Do you hate him?”

  Isaac’s eyes bounced back up from the table, as his mouth opened, empty of words, seemingly trying to wrangle the thoughts from his mind into a present form without mismanaging them by any means. “I resent his actions, yes, but the intent, to aid your family, for generations...I can’t fault a man for that, for trying to provide a life for himself...his family. Perrault...” Isaac tensed up, his upper lip twitching with rage as his teeth gritted ferociously, “is another story.”

  I nodded slowly. “So Perrault is just accumulating souls to prolong his own life?”

  “That, I’m unsure of,” he sighed and lounged back in his seat.

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  Suddenly, a flicker of light came in my eyes, a thought. “What about Lucretia?”

  Isaac raised a brow. “What do you mean?”

  “Could he be trying to give her more souls, as tribute, to cement his immortality or increase his powers? Maybe special souls too, with their abilities? He's gotta be planning something large scale."

  “A lot of questions to ponder,” Isaac put forth. “We have no way of knowing. Just let the research do its part. Callum will do appropriate work at this stage.”

  Suddenly, a thought hit me. I leaned forward and grabbed his hand, tugging him upwards and out of the booth. “We don’t have to wait for Callum,” I said, with an excitable gleam in my eye.

  Isaac hesitated, before slowly rising out of his seat, his face painted with confusion.

  “There’s one more place we must go before the night is through.”

  “Where?” Isaac asked, standing up beside me, and looking at our hands interlocked for just a moment, our faces close to each other in the darkened flicker of light from a faulty bulb above.

  We gazed into each others' eyes, my own bouncing back to his lips before quickly back to his own eyes, which were following my own track in suit. Was there something here? It felt like some kind of magnetism, drawing us together. There were moments where I hated this man. I still did, right? Or...I thought I did...but things changed. Being around him now...my blackened blood pumped, all throughout my body, my heart beating like it never had. I'd died before...but now...Isaac made me feel alive.

  I retracted my hand, with a sheepish smile, embarrassed and brushed it off, as...nice... as it was. I couldn't let my emotions start muddling things. Feels like something I'd done in the past...but...looking at him, the total package, that would be very challenging. Isaac was always attractive, there was no doubt about that, but even seeing him in a state like this, vulnerable, so human...it made him even more so.

  No! I shook these meandering thoughts from my mind. Now was not the time for this, as much as I wanted it!

  “There’s a certain spot I need visit...from my past," I said, with a grin. "A certain...warehouse, that is.”