a jump in my step...(open)

She felt a gentle hand on her shoulder and she knew Miya had come along. She smiled and turned. Miya's question caught her off guard. Why hadn't this been a question she had asked herself?

"There's just something about him Miya. Something...underlying that draws me to him. Maybe he's a movie star under cover here in Nachton or something." she shrugged at how stupid that sounded.

"He's irresistable and a part of me doesn't like that so I figure either he's 'the one' or I've got to put his smug ass to shame."

She looked to where Miya was pointing and her eyes brightened.

"Ya! That's him! Let's go move those hussy's outta there."

She reached out for Miya's wrist so they wouldn't get lost in the crowd as they walked.

Panos could see them comming. The blue and green flashing lights making strange mixtures of colors off there hair and faces. He sighed.

It was obvious that getting rid of Delilah was going to be harder than he thought. Damn him for not of killing her sooner. There had been something in the little doll at the strip club that had brought him back to see only her all those times. She reminded him of a time and place that he kept hidden and burried away deep inside of himself. It had been so many years, hundreds of years to be closer to the truth, since he had seen a face like that. So small, and innocent and charmingly sweet.

He had thought things would be fine as long as he didn't carry it out of Babylon, which he didn't it was Delilah that was chasing him around, but now things were on a different level.

How long would it be before he had to get rid of this girl for good? He couldn't have her following him like a puppy. Especially if she was going to put herself in dangerous places like she did this evening. Not only comming to the House of Pain but then jumpining in on a fight?

An old pain twinged inside of him.

He looked at the two women sitting at the booth with him. Louis would have both of them this evening if he wanted. Maybe Alexandra would want one, he wasn't sure on her preference or on her mood on this odd evening.

He waited for the two naive girls to approach his booth. What a world they had walked into.

Miya stayed close to Delilah, letting the girl tug her along. Something about the situation didn't sit quite right with her. Maybe Delilah did get slipped some sort of drug one night and that was why she was fixating so. You could never tell what chemical concoction would next be available.

Miya's keen blue eyes narrowed slightly as they reached the booth. She puffed herself up slightly hoping her body language gave off 'protection' vibes. This guy certainly acted the part of a movie star with girls on each side fawning over him.

So many events triggered small moments of deja vu for Miya, but this handsome greek did none of that, and that in and of itself was a noticeable enough occassion for Miya to give him a second penetrating look. What was it about this man that made her friend lose her cool?

They quickly approached the booth Miya had scouted out. Pauly was seated between two drop dead beautiful women and staring straight at her. His face looked expecting as they arrived as if he knew she would find him in the crowded club.

Pulling herself straight Delilah directed her gaze towards the two annoyed looking women. Giving a look that could kill at each of them she hope her intentions were clear on what she wanted from them.

"I don't think I properly thanked you Pauly. I am shocked that you would save me from being crushed especially after the last time we were together."

Placing her hand on her hip she felt the rough texture of her skinny jeans and unconciously her pointer finger rubbed at it out of anxiety.

"I've been trying to get ahold of you since."

It was like a bad dream come true, Delilah actually used the word 'saved'. This was bound to end ugly.

Speaking low enough for the two women next to him to hear he instructed them to leave.

"Come back when my friends arrive." He motioned with his head for them to leave and watched them obey his every word.

Leaning back he put his left arm along the booth back and turned his head to Delilah's friend.

"Shouldn't you be controlling her better?" His comment was a sarcastic reply to her earlier declaration.

"Delilah, what is it that you want? Is it because I walked away from you the other night? Do you want to tell me off? Will that make you feel better? Is that what it's going to take?"

As easy as it was to say these words, he inwardly felt a darkness spread throughout his chest. A flicker of a memory danced before his eyes.

"PANOS! Stop them! Don't let them do this! Save me!" her screams destroyed the pure silence that had sliced through his reality. He couldn't move...

A growl rose in his chest snapping him back to the here and now. Anger flooded his body. Memories he thought he had once forgotten were slowly making their way to the surface and he had no doubt it was because of Delilah.

"Say what you've come to say and leave." He snapped.

Miya couldn't help laughing at his sarcastic comment, "Do you see my collar on her? We're just friends. Besides, she's too exuberant to be controlled." The look Miya gave Panos clearly said, 'do you think you can control her? Try!'. Miya continued to glower, speaking amusedly, "I enjoy her exuberance."

Miya looked back at her friend and waited to follow her cue. She wasn't going to let her go away with this man at all. She then whispered to Delilah, "Delilah...." She breathed softly, warningly.

What the hell was she supossed to say? Or do for that matter? Yelling at him wasn't what she wanted, it was quite the opposite. There didn't seem to be a way to make any of this better.

She heard Miya's plea and remembered something.

"I just wanted to let you know that the other night after you drove away some lunatic exgirlfriend of yours nearly attacked me on the street. Warning me to stay away from you. She must of followed you or why else would she happen to be there? Maybe you should call her and tell her to drop dead."

It was a weak solution to her problem. That wasn't why she was really looking for him but it was better than just walking away. She turned now to walk away, feeling a bit foolish.

He rolled his eyes at the snarky redhead and leaned casually to the side.

It wasn't until the hair on the back of Panos's neck rose did Panos pay full attention to what Delilah was rambling about.

So he wasn't imagening it, that creeping sensation was real! He was being followed.

The thing was, he had no exgirlfriends. Women who weren't immortal didn't last for very long after he was done with them. Though the same could be said even for those who were immortal.

He leaned forward more interested now than he had ever been. If Delilah had gotten a look of what this mystery woman looked like maybe he could begin to piece together this past year.

"Wait. What did she look like? Did she say her name?"

First she heard his voice, then as she turned she saw the look in his eyes and she knew she had him. The tables had turned, he wanted something from her now.

She smirked at him.

"I don't remember."

Spinning back around she turned to Miya.

"Let's go Miya, I'm sorry I dragged you over here."

It was Pauly's turn to chase after her. If he really wanted the information he would have to pay for it.

"I hope I haven't ruined your evening Miya. I don't even know whats come over me lately. This is not how I usually act, you can ask anyone at the club. But let's see what we can find you in here!"

She was instantly cheery again. Secretly she hoped Pauly didn't believe that she didn't remember that womans face. It was hard not to remember someone who randomly confronts you out of nowhere. The blue eyes, the brownish red hair, the pale complexion. She was pretty but nothing to write home about.

Miya laughed heartily as the two girls moved away from 'Paully'. "No you haven't ruined my evening. As for him?" And she gestured somewhat rudely behind them in 'Paully's' direction, "Don't let him get to you. He's way too arrogant for his own good and definately not good enough for you!" Miya grinned slightly and placed a soft kiss on Delilah's cheek in reassurance. "I hope you didn't mind I said I was your Dominant. I'm really not a Dominant at all, but in this place you are one or the other and submissives without Dominants are prey. And well he's a Dominant." She frowned slightly, "Well he 'feels' Dominant anyway. "

Delilah smirked at Miya's comment.

"I bet he doesn't feel so dominant now. The little bit of information I gave him seemed to trigger a need for more of it, and I'm not about to let go of that power so easily."

Let Pauly be the one to chase after her now. She'd stretch this out as long as she could. She had good patience when it came to these types of games.

"Oh and no, I didn't mind what you said. Thank you for trying to save me though. I want you to know I would have done it for you too. This place is kind of...rough, don't you think? I mean who designs a place with the only entrance being a sewer. There's gotta be some fire code in violation there."

There was an vacant table ahead of them and Delilah quickly laid clame to it. Pulling out the chair she sat down and leaned back and looked for a cocktail waitress. A shot girl was wading through the people with a neon tray and Delilah flagged her over. It wasn't exactly what she was looking for but for now it would do. The girl came close and pointed to her tray of red and pink colored test tubes with raised eyebrows. Delilah nodded and purchased four without asking Miya if she planned to join in on the drinking.

Delilah turned back to the table with the four shooters and extended a hand out to Miya.

"Wanna do a shot or am I doing all four?"

Miya glanced at the shots and just shook her head slightly, "No, no alcohol." She was looking around the room curiously, looking for something. It was a familiar place to her. The couples moving in the intricate dance of dominance and submission, whispered words and frantic negotiations. Clubs like this held a power, an atmosphere, a certain smell.

"I wish..." She began to speak watching a gay couple on a cross. She didn't finish the statement, she didn't really know what she wished for.

Delilah raised a delicate eyebrow.

No alcohol? That was unusual she thought to herself.

"To each their own." she muttered under the music.

With a shrug she downed all four shots in rapid fire. They were weak, most likely Cherry Pucker and Tequilia Rose, but still tastey. Placing the tubes down on the table for the shot girl to collect Delilah heard Miya's incomplete thought.

"You wish? Wish what, that you could drink alcohol? Oh! Would you maybe prefer a beer? I know tons of people who don't like the hard stuff in comparission."

She could have misunderstood her friends comment but then again she didn't know much about her except that she was new in town. Her reasons for not drinking could be any number of things.

"Wait, are you in AA? If so my bad I didn't mean to put you on the spot. Do you want a pop or something?"

Miya began to laugh at the AA question, "A beer would be fine. I don't like the harder stuff, it makes me sick the next day. You seemed to enjoy it though!" She spoke, glad that her friend had misinterpreted her half spoken statement.

The music of the club was intoxicating, deep and rhythmic, punctuated by the occasional shriek and scream. She accepted the Sam's Adam that was given to her by a waitress and took a long swig from the bottle. "Dance with me Delilah?" She asked suddenly feeling the itch in her calf muscles that signified that she needed to be doing something productive.

With a sigh of relief Delilah was glad Miya wasn't in AA for more than obvious reasons. Too many girls at work had went through both AA and NA and found it hard to commit to the program. It was a tough battle to live with.

"I'm an old pro." she replied to Miya's observation.

A waitress had finally made it around to them and she ordered an Apple Martini. The wonderful liquid slid down her throat effortlessly before Miya asked her to dance. It had been awhile she since had been dancing in other ways than for money.

"Sure why not. Let's have some fun."

Taking her half full drink with her she managed her way to the dance floor where the music got inevitably louder.

"Man there's a lot of people here! It's like a festival of bodies!" she shouted above the music. "If you see anything nice let me know and we'll make our way over to him so you can 'accidently' be near." she have laughed and half drank from her glass as she spoke.

It was good to be having some fun.

He had gone back to his hotel, taken a shower and changed his clothes, dressed in a pair of faded blue jeans and a tight fitting black v-neck pullover he casually strolled into the HoP, Panos and Alexandra had filled him in on the location, being new to Nachton it was a good thing they had clearly told him how to get there.

Walking towards the bar he let his steal blue eyes wander around the busy club, hoping to find either Alexa or Panos there, spotting Panos he made his way over.

Stopping next to the table he was sitting at he took a seat, meeting Panos' eyes he nodded.

"I take it Alexa isn't here yet?"

As a waitress passed by he ordered a beer, gesturing at Panos he waited for the other man to order.

It was his keen eyesight that made it easy to keep his eyes on both Delilah and her friend Miya in the crowd. He knew it was going to be impossible to get Miya away from Delilah willingly. There would be no way she'd let her friend go off with him to talk, he could tell that much from how Miya reacted to him in the first place. She was suspicious of his interest of Delilah.

As the girls walked past the bar to the dance floor Panos spotted Louis comming his way. As Louis sat down, he nodded in response to his question.

"Ya not yet that I know of. Glen Garioch on the rocks." he noted to the waitress.

"Welcome to the House of Pain. Finding a 'bite to eat' here is like walking into a market. So, did you really come here to get rid of Alexandra? All the way from Europe right?"

He was still a bit skeptical of Louis. The man had come a long way for something, to get here and just do nothing was...a little off.

Taking out his cigarettes he took one out of the package, lighting it he took a long drag as Panos explained the purpose of the club, nodding he licked his lips, it had been a while since he fed last, he remembered going hunting with Alexandra, they used to be one hell of a team back then, taking another drag he sat back looking around the club.

Nodding at Panos' words he turned his head to look at the other male.

"No, I came to find her after Michel betrayed me, he tried to kill me when I found out what he had done, I believed that fucker for way too long"

The waitress returned with their drinks, taking his beer he put down enough money to pay for the both of them.

"Look Panos we don't know eachother and I can tell you really care for Alexandra, I'm not asking you to trust me, fuck i'm not sure i can trust you either, but she seems to and i know for a fact that Alexandra has a hard time trusting anyone, so there must be something about you other then good sex"

Smirking he put the cig back in his mouth, letting it dangle from his lips he leaned back in his chair.

Womanizer, woman-womanizer
You're a womanizer
Oh womanizer,
Oh you're a womanizer baby
You, you, you are
You, you, you are
Womanizer, womanizer, womanizer (Womanizer)

She looked good, she felt refreshed, strutting her stuff she walked into the club, men watching her as her hips moved from side to side, she was like a dangerous animal loose on the prowl, her dark eyes watching, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips, winking at a man who eyed her up and down she moved to the music, her hands moving up and down her body as she danced, her long locks moving around her as she twirled, moving up against random people, grabbing a glass from a man standing next to her she threw it's content down her throat, whipping her mouth dry with the back of her hand she twirled around, pushing the man back as she walked of off the dancefloor.

Spotting Panos and Louis she smiled brightly at them, another song came on as she walked towards them in an almost catwalk like manner, anyone who watched her would say she was a high class model, she surely wouldn't look out place on a runway.

Stopping next to the table both men were seated at she flashed them a smile, showing off a hint of fang.

"Hiya boys, missed me?"