Matt, Liz and David drank late into the night.

By the time Harry got to bed she knew it wouldn't be long until the sun was coming up.

She would have gone to bed and left them to it, but she thought it rude to leave her guests when they were there to celebrate her birthday. And she had a strong suspicion that she wouldn't be doing any sleeping anyway.

The way Harry was feeling, she would have liked to have been drinking with them. Unfortunately, she had already polished off all their wine, and after the initial warm calming sensation of the bubbly liquid, the drinking had become rather pointless. Two bottles later, she was little more than tipsy.

When Harry climbed into bed, David enveloped her in his strong arms and kissed her passionately. He then held her tight and lightly kissed her shoulder over and over. It felt nice to be embraced by him again. A surge of love bubbled within her, like a dying fire stoked back to life.

"Love you," she whispered. His gentle snores reverberating against her arm was the only response.

She was alone with her thoughts once more. The night had been overwhelming. On top of all the information she'd learnt, she had killed a man... No, a demon. If she was going to live with what she had done she would need to remember that destinction. He hadn't been a man, he'd been a demon who had been trying to kill her. Jake, on the other hand, it was likely he had been half human.

Her stomach twisted. She threw back the covers and fought to free herself from David's strong grip around her waist. She raced to the bathroom. The second bottle of wine poured from her mouth. She sat on the bathroom floor wiping her mouth as well as the tears that were streaming down her face. The image of both deaths replayed in her mind, blurring and melding into some sort of hideous nightmare, as if what had happened hadn't been bad enough. Liz's shocked expression and Dupret's casual observance of her blended together. The first bottle of wine followed the second.

She sobbed into the toilet paper, not even bothering to wipe her mouth. How could she have possibly contemplated experimenting with someone's life only a week earlier? Tonight's act hadn't been premeditated and she still felt like the weight was too much to bare. She wiped her mouth and brought her knees up to her chest. She sat in the old beige toilet room, the light reflecting off the window in the door, and laid her head on the toilet lid. The hard unyielding plastic hurt her cheek. She refused to move. She didn't deserve anything less than strong physical discomfort. The self-loathing aspect of her heart told her she was getting off easy. She didn't know how she would manage to move on from this. How could she be strong enough to be this 'Keeper' Sam talked about? She wasn't even strong enough to deal with the deaths of two demons, when apparently demon killing was the Keeper's future.

She sat in silence, listening to her breathing, working to deepen the short shallow inhalations. David's snores were a mumble through the door.

This wasn't fair on him. Her world had become too unsafe. Sam was right. If she really was this 'Keeper', and deep inside she knew she was, then they would be targets if they stayed with her. She couldn't do that to them.

She could run and hide. If the Mercys had lived in the outback since Robert Mercy founded it, they must have hid from the demons for about 150 years. In today's world of technology and surveillance, what was the chance she would manage that? They would never stop hunting her. Where could she possibly go where they couldn't follow?

Her only truly viable option would be to send them away. If she told David what was happening then he'd never leave her. She needed to make him hate her and she needed the demons to believe that following them wasn't worth it. They needed to think that their lives meant nothing to her.

Harry got up off the toilet floor and proceeded to the bathroom to wash her face. She stared at herself in the mirror. The puffiness from around her eyes was was already evaporating, even though she hadn't long stopped crying. The bright emerald of her eyes was flecked with gold, giving her an oddly wolfish appearance.

She moved to the spare room. Sitting on the little orange couch, she pulled a blanket up over her legs and torso. She continued to consider her predicament.

Harry knew the one course of action that led men to hate their spouses. She was ashamed to admit it to herself, but she could actually go through with it too. Definitely not for just any man, but if she stopped fighting it, she'd easily give herself to Sam. Still, she didn't think she could live with the guilt that would come after the fact. That would be even worse than what was currently eating her up inside; perhaps her priorities were skewed but that was how abhorent the idea of betraying her husband was to her. However, sleeping with Sam wouldn't necessarily phase David, he was completely under the man's spell, and just because she'd been unfaithful didn't mean that the demons would think that they couldn't get to her through Charlie.

How could she convince them that her only daughter was unimportant to her? How could she break that mother's bond? Most importantly, how could she stop the demons from coming after her if Harry died?

She needed some way to mask Charlie from them. Keeping her safe was more important than anything else in the world. Even if Harry had to give up her soul, it would be worth it to keep her baby alive.

Harry had no idea how to protect Charlie from them, but she hoped that her new found ally could be persuaded to help her without her having to hand over the key. She didn't know what she would bargain with, but the moment that the hour was acceptable she would go to Dupret and beg him to help her mask her bloodline to keep her daughter safe. Maybe she could make him think that doing this for her would help him secure her allegiance, and bring him one step closer to the key.

Once Harry knew that Charlie couldn't be found, then she'd see to sending her and David away; to breaking David's heart and her own with it.

Harry laid her head against the back of the couch. She couldn't believe she was actually preparing herself for a lifetime of loneliness.

But there's no need for it to start tonight.

Harry got off the couch, and returned to bed. Snuggling back under the covers, she lifted David's arm and placed it back around her waist.

Harry cleared her mind. Tomorrow she would set in motion the ending of her happiness, but she could make these last few hours happy ones. Basking in David's body heat, she played forward the life they were meant to have in her mind.

She had no idea what the future would now hold, but the demons could never take away her dreams. There her family would remain with her until she took her last breath.

...................................................................................................................................................

Hi guys,
Me again! This wasn't what I'd been planning for this chapter. After the party was only meant to take up a couple of paragraphs. Still, I always knew that Harry would send David away but deciding exactly how has been difficult. Any ideas? Also, it was only as I was writing this chapter that I had realised that even if David leaves with Charlie, the demons will still want her (as Sam pointed out last chapter). What do you think Sam could do to mask her? And what will Harry give him as payment?

Love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for reading, and remember to press the star if you're enjoying.

😗😙😚❤💙💚💛💜

AnitaKathleen xxx