Note: SO after that lovely cliffhanger in the last chapter, I'm sure you all want to see how Tia responds...so without further ado....

Tia's POV

My whole body is paralysed with shock from his words. They seem so foreign on his lips, like they don't belong in his vocabulary.

"I did it because I love you, okay?"

I blink furiously as I turn, swivelling my gaze away from the door to him, and my hand drops from the handle limply.

He is turned away from me, so I can't see his face, but he is tense. His hands have curled into fists, and his posture is rigid, almost soldier-like. The only noises in the room are the pattering of raindrops on the balcony floor, and the beating of my heart getting faster and faster.

"You...arranged for me to be stabbed...because you love me."

When I say the words out loud, I realise just how stupid they sound.

"Look, I know it doesn't sound too good-"

"Too good? What the hell kind of messed up freak are you?" I yell, and then I regret the words as soon as they leave my mouth.

He turns sharply, and his eyes are wild with rage. Automatically, I begin to back away as he furiously crosses the distance between us and shoves me up against the wall, his hands gripping my arms so hard, I have to clench my jaw to stop my protest.

"I am not a freak" he says coldly, glaring at me as he spits the last word. "I am a demigod, and I can hurt you in a million different ways. You are a weak little mortal, and I can crush you with my bare hands." He squeezes his hands hard and I bite back a whimper at the pain blossoming in my arms. "So do not accuse me of being a freak, because I will break you into a million pieces!"

Looks like I touched a nerve, I think timidly.

"But you won't" I reply, meeting his glare.

He stares back, and I almost fall under a trance. I'd never noticed how beautiful his eyes were until now-as corny as that sounds-and I felt almost hypnotised by them.

"But I won't." He pauses. "Because I love you." He releases my arms and moves away from me to the other side of the room, placing both hands on his desk chair. "What part of that is so hard for you to understand?"

Thinking of a reply, I realise that I'm trembling slightly, my arms still aching from his vice like grip. "I'm no-...I'm jus-..." I sigh in frustration, trying to think of a way to speak properly.

"I want to know why you got Sjin to stab me-and don't say it's because you love me." He turns to face me to bite back at my order, but I carry on swiftly. "That isn't a justification for the pain you caused me on that night. Why stab me at all? Why not just walk up to me on the street and say hello?"

He watches me intently, calculating a reply.

"Before you and I met for the first time," he starts quietly, "before you had even seen me, what did everyone say about me?"

The penny drops somewhere in my mind, and I shuffle awkwardly under his intense gaze. "That...I couldn't...go near you, or talk to you because you would hurt me."

"Exactly. You were fed this information before you even had the chance to know me. Of course, I usually do hurt people, and kill people-but had it ever occurred to you that I might be lonely? In need of a partner?"

"No, because you're the most terrifying man in the whole of bloody Mistral." I sit on the bed, averting my gaze to the floor.

He sighs, and he folds his arms behind his back. "If I had walked up to you in the street and said hi, how do you do, come back to mine for a drink and biscuits, you would have run. Or attacked me. The easiest way for me to get you to not run from me was to pretend to be the hero. I told Sjin to attack you, but not kill you. And he did, and then I came in, and rescued you. Did you, or did you not, feel a little bit more safe to be around me afterwards?"

I consider my answer carefully, watching him out of the corner of his eye as he moves. "I wouldn't say safe..." He continues to move slowly to the opposite wall from the bed nearest to the door until he is leaning on it. "I'd say less...scared of your presence."

Ridge shrugs at me, and I look back up at him. He looks tired and worn out, like he has been awake for days. "It still worked."

We stay in a somewhat peaceful silence for the next few minutes, apart from the rain outside getting heavier.

"So..." I murmur, clearing my throat. "Where do we go from here?"

Ridge inhales before standing up off the wall and slowly approaching me.

"Wherever you want. I can't force you to stay with me after this, it's your choice. You can stay or leave, and I'll respect either decision." He sits down heavily on the bed next to me, but he doesn't touch me. I can feel his eyes boring into me, and I shiver involuntarily.

Despite the anger I had felt before, I feel oddly calm now. Almost relieved that the whole Sjin situation has been cleared up. So I'm not surprised when my conclusion comes quickly. I sigh loudly, so he knows I've made up my mind.

"Most men try flowers" I grumble, before leaning over into him. Ridge laughs quietly, and wraps his arms around me, pulling me onto his chest as he leans backwards onto the bed.

"I'm not most men" he whispers, his hand slipping into mine as he gently squeezes it, his other hand tracing the scar on my arm delicately.

Note: Yay! Aren't we glad that's been cleared up...now onto some other POV's :D

Duncan's POV

"It's a little strange, don't you think?" 

"Huh?" I ask, not really listening at all and instead focusing on the TV, waiting for another news broadcast on whether or not this Valleycat is a hoax or not.

"I said, it's a little strange, don't you think?" Simon repeats, louder.

"What is?" I ask, forcing my eyes from the screen to the business pair sat in their office chairs.

"Both Sips and Sjin have gone, and so has Ridgedog and Ti-"

"Don't say her name, Lewis." I cut in, swallowing. Lewis raises an eyebrow at me, and corrects his glasses on the bridge of his nose. "Just...I don't want to hear about them any more. Ever."

"God's sake, Dunc, you've been watching the news all day waiting for them to come on. Get over it-she thinks that Ridge can give her what we can't, and we should...respect that decision." Lewis knows he has screwed up at the last part, as Simon whips round to protest.

"Respect her decision? He probably manipulated her into staying with him like he always does. Pretending he loves her and wants to take care of her and then when she's rolling around on the floor for him he'll break her heart and then kill her!"

"You don't know that" Lewis counters, fingers clenching the table. "Maybe he has actually changed, it's not impossible-"

"You've never heard of the story have you?"

All of us whirl round to see the ominous black caped figure of Kirin Dave, a man we had neither seen or heard of for many years.

"Kirin. It's been a while." Lewis starts, being the first to regain his composure. I shuffle on the sofa, gripping the remote like a gun. Everyone is twitchy about him-no one knows who's side he is on so we neither trust him nor distrust him.

Kirin sighs, eyes scanning the room. "It has."

There is silence for a while, before I break it shakily. "What story?"

Kirin smirks, and gestures forward. "Please, sit, all of you. It's a long tale..."

Simon  heads over to the sofa, sitting down and grabbing a pack of Jaffa cakes before turning to Kirin. Lewis remains in his office chair, eyes never leaving the sorcerer.

Coughing into his fist mockingly, Kirin begins to pace slowly, evenly around the room whilst spinning his story web.

"There was once a young, handsome man named Ridgedog..."

THIRD PERSON POV (RIDGEDOG)

"There was once a young, handsome man named Ridgedog..."

"Handsome?"

"...who lived to corrupt, to manipulate, to destroy."

Black and gold coat flowing out behind him in the wind, Ridgedog strolls down the streets of London proudly, knowing he owned this entire city and everyone in it.

"There was a beautiful girl who lived in the same city he did. An immortal, like him, only she was the princess and soon to be queen of them all."

His hand trails the glass of a particular shop, and his eyes linger on the various flowers there, trying to pick which colours Tia would like.

"He decided to court her, behind the prince's back. To woo her, and perhaps worm his way into the royal bloodline, but his true motives soon changed. He knew that this princess was frail, weak, naive and gullible. Desperate for attention, wanting someone to make her feel...wanted."

He enters the shop and fiddles with some of the roses, plucking off their dead petals before advancing to the counter with a handful of about ten.

"How he went about this is strange. He hired some people to attempt to assassinate her, only for him to swoop in and save her. The princess was very, very grateful for his help and so the trap had been set."

"Sjin" Lewis cuts in. "Sjin stabbed her, Ridgedog saved her."

Kirin smiles. "Indeed."

Ridgedog hands the roses to the man behind the till. "Must be a lucky girl" he grins, teeth chattering and Ridge bites back a grin-he knew who he was. 

Ridge smiles. "Indeed."

"Behind the prince's back, they began to court. He made her feel loved, showered her with gifts, saved her when someone attacked her. He was the perfect gentleman. Except he didn't want to be. After seeing what the king was doing, he decided he didn't want to be king. But what he did want was to corrupt the woman he owned. And so he told her about staging the assassination, and the princess was confused at first, but the trap had already been set."

The man hands the roses back along with the change. "Thanks for your service. Have a nice day." 

Ridge nods politely. "Oh, I will."

"She forgave his actions, and so the trap had snapped shut."

Leaving the store to the tinkle of the doorbell, he advances further down the streets with the bag of roses clutched in one hand.

"Now somewhere along the line, the prince had gotten her pregnant. Ridgedog didn't like this, and vowed to kill the child when it was born. The princess didn't notice his resentment-she was too madly in love to notice anything."

He enters another shop, this time a cake shop, and picks out the largest piece of a vanilla cake, with butter icing and strawberry jam oozing out of the middle.

"So when the baby was born, Ridgedog made his move."

Wrapping it into a tissue, he smiles again at the shop keeper and leaves, this time heading back to the hotel.

"He tortured the woman. Stabbed her, bit her, kicked her, corrupted her, and finally killed her slowly, and intimately, all the while listening to her screams, and the prince's desperate cries from outside the locked door as he listened to his beloved wife, the future queen, be slaughtered."

"Jesus Christ" Duncan mutters, trembling madly. Simon grips his shoulders, feeling sick as he thought of Tia, alone in the hotel room, oblivious to any of this.

Pacing along the street, he smirks at pedestrians who gawked at him, moving out of his way, recognizing him as he walks up to the hotel front door.

"Finally, he hung her body up on the flag pole outside the castle, so everyone would see his work. He loved it-the sensation of corrupting something so innocent, so trusting-he became addicted to it."

Walking in, he goes to the hotel attendant. "Anyone ask for me whilst I've been away?"

The woman swallows, and shakes her head.

"Good girl" he purrs, patting her on the head before ascending the stairs with a grace fit for a king.

"Now the prince knew where he was going to go next-there is nothing as innocent as a baby. A baby girl, for that matter. The prince summoned up all of his powers, and changed the baby into a mortal, and cast her out to the human world so that Ridgedog would never find her. But not before naming her. He named her-"

"Tia" Lewis finishes, and Duncan buries his face into his hands, shaking so madly he felt like he was going to faint.

Opening the hotel door, he puts on a smile, and meets Tia's eyes instantly. She's lying on the bed, reading a book, and she lowers it upon his entry, raising an eyebrow. "Took you long enough, love" she smirks, and he laughs, locking the door behind him.

"Remembering his vow to kill the child, his addiction consumed him and he went into the human world, a world which he had frequented behind the king's back anyway. And he waited. And waited. Until he found her."

She stands and he drops the bag on the floor, before embracing her tightly, wrapping his arms around her waist and spinning her around, making her laugh. He fishes the roses out of the bag and hands her all of them but one, which he puts in between his teeth.

"He was shocked at how fast she had matured into an adult, and he could almost taste the innocence buried beneath the hard exterior she put on. And so he decided that killing her straight away wouldn't be the best idea."

"Oh God, no" Simon whispers, and Kirin smiles almost sadly, which was a strange emotion on his face.

"Yes." He whispers back, but everyone can hear him. "He decided to deliver to her the same fate which her mother had been given. He decided to manipulate her into loving him before corrupting her."

With a giggle, she takes the rose out of his mouth and twirls it in between two fingers. "Thank you" she smiles, burying her face lovingly into his coat. Placing his chin on her head he smirks at the wall. 

It was almost time.

"And unfortunately, time is of the essence. He has already told her about arranging to kill her...and she has forgiven him, as her mother did."

"Shit!" Lewis hisses, rising to his feet. "We need to find her."

"Lewis." Kirin commands, and Lewis looks at him. "It's too late. She is in his trap, and if you interfere, you and everyone you love will die from his hands. No, there is one good thing about this story."

"I didn't say it yesterday, but..." Tia breathes into his coat and lifts her head out to look at him. He gazes at her, hiding his smirk. He knew exactly what she was going to say.

"Her father has found her. He knows where she is and what he is doing to her. You can only hope that he manages to stop this before it happens again."

"I love you too, Ridge" she whispers, her eyes revealing emotions she had kept so hidden over the years. 

Ridge doesn't say a word, and kisses her hard on the lips.

Note: Hehehehehehehe