When the Others of the Dark Markets saw Silas coming, with a new arm of onyx scales and black talons enveloped in hungering shadow, alarm spread through the market like flame. The chains were gone and a beast of a black hound was at his side. A parting ocean for Lucifer's chosen.

No one dare stand in his way. 

Silence as Silas, his focus forward, walked through the split sea of Others, all the way to Victor's Gallipot. This time Yona was with him. He needed a handler more than ever. Their new partnership. With a wry smile, she followed. Lucifer was letting his Hellhound loose. 

Trailing stares went to her, more Others bowing back further when she walked before them. They could see her horns. A pure blood Dæmon in the Dark Markets was not unheard of, but to many, they were special. Lucifer's true children. 

And they had accepted the Collector as their own. 

Victor was in his shop when a shiver ran up his spine. He turned to the entrance just as he was greeted with the frantic face of a regular customer suddenly coming into view. 

"The Collector is coming for you!" They shouted in warning. 

The scramble was instant. Victor grabbed the most important of his possessions – a small bag on his desk with the essentials he kept close. Hiding the keys to the blood bank in his shop, he would come back later to retrieve anything else important. 

He would sneak out a back exit, he told himself. There had been an escape route planned for an emergency. Casting a glance back to the exit to double check his timing, he froze. Tendrils of black shadow curled in around the door frame, coming from the one in the black suit that stepped into view. 

"Silas," Victor gasped.

It was Silas, but different. Very different. Victor could see the new arm the Collector had, it was the work of the Devil himself. It was where the arm that had held the chains had been. Victor's eyes scanned around Silas, realizing that both the chains and Sky were gone. Instead, Cerberus walked in beside the Collector, his sharp stare on the gypsy vampire, its cropped ears perked.  

The Soul Collector stepped forward. His narrowed ember gaze locked on his target, who was clearly trying to sneak into some hole he had at the back of the shop in order to get away. A vampire's speed wasn't easily matched but as Victor turned to run, he believed himself able to at least get a head start on the ones at his heels. 

Talons extended at length, grabbing the scruff of the back of Victor's neck, pulling him off his feet. Spinning him around, Silas’ face was inches from his and a growl was rising from Cerberus.

One of the tendrils of his shadow angrily swept sideways, smashing across a shelf that held dozens of glasses of rare herbs and fairies. The small creatures flew free of the broken glass but were unable to avoid the hunger of Silas’ shadow that consumed their lives, leaving their dead carcasses to flutter to the floor.

"My friend, listen-"

"Silence." Silas said, squeezing his talons in warning into Victor's neck. The gypsy's eyes bulged as his hands flew to the sharp nails at his throat, trying to pull them away. "It is you that will listen."

Fear in the gypsy made him freeze and the Collector brought his face closer.

"I know it was you." Silas seethed. Victor didn't like the direction Silas was leading the conversation. He was soulless no longer.

"I don't know what you-" The vampire began but Silas finished for him.  

"Faust came to you." Silas' voice was a frozen rumble. 

"No, I mean, yes," Victor stammered. He was searching for the wise words he needed to save himself. "It's not what you think! I didn't set you up."

"YOU are the one who set up Sky," 

Cerberus’ began to bark. Vicious slathering jaws, snapping at Victor’s leg in warning of what he could do, waiting for Silas to give his command. He would rip him to shreds given the chance. Victor's eyes widened at the Collector's accusation. It was worse than being accused of being an accessory to Silas' assassination. Squeezing Victor's neck, Silas paid little heed to Yona coming into Victor's darkening view over, his shadows moving from her way. 

Knowing she would have something to say, Cerberus went quiet, keeping his threat visible on his angered muzzle. 

"Seriously, Silas, this is where you get your information?" Yona teased. Casting a glance to Victor in the Collector's claws, Yona gave the Gypsy a polite smile, ignoring his predicament. "Just get what you need and let's go. This place is weirding me out." 

Victor's eyes darted back and forth from Silas to the Dæmon woman. 

"Where has the rat gone?" demanded the Collector, giving Victor a jerk to bring the vampire's gaze back to him. Victor shook his head in wide eyed fear. 

"I-I swear! I don't know anything!"

Silas knew it was a lie. Victor always knew something. An annoyed hiss rose from the Collector. The heat of the anger Silas could now feel burned inside him like a roaring furnace.

"Liar!" Silas snarled.

"I'm... not lying. Silas... please!" Victor squirmed in the Collector’s grasp. 

"Speak, Victor." 

Victor had no chances left with what remained of Silas' patience.

"H-he came here! Looking for you. Looking for Sky. He spoke about liberating all Others. Purging the non-believers. He said that he needed you both to start something that would change this world forever." Victor said. Silas gave him another shake when he stalled. "He gave me the Angel Egg to give to you. He said that if you brought it back to him, his plan would be set in motion."

Yona caught the words the Gypsy said and with wide eyes she turned to Silas. 

"You were given an Angel Egg and you didn't tell me?" Yona was visibly annoyed. "Goddamnit Silas, never touch Divine items. They are nothing but trouble."

Silas didn't answer. His attention remained on the Gypsy. 

"He said that all I had to do was give it to you. Everything else would fall into place." 

Another squeeze and Victor was coaxed into speaking the words that would reveal his betrayal. Silas' was scanning his face for any falter or twitch in his movement. 

"I-I didn't know... he would use it... to take her..." Victor writhed. The force of the black talons was near crushing the Gypsy's neck.

Silas hadn't mentioned that Faust had used the Angel Egg to take Sky. Victor knew more. The fury flared and Silas' eyes sparked with ebony fire. Cerberus howled.

"You knew Faust's plan and deceived us!" 

"No-" 

The Collector took the Gypsy off his feet, slamming him into the ground before he could say anything else. The world was knocked to the side and took more than a moment to rebound in Victor's vision. He tried as fast as he could to gather his broken thoughts, a part of him knowing his life hung in the balance. 

Silas' grip fell away, only to be replaced by Cerberus' muzzle enclosing Victor’s jugular vein. Victor dared not touch the hound’s face out of fear the dog would crush his neck. 

"Tell me what you know, Victor. Now! Or I shall allow my Cerberus to do as he pleases with you." growled Silas. 

"Silas-” 

"Tell me!" 

Silas’ new found rage was frightening. 

"He didn’t need you!" Victor cried. "He only needed Sky! I knew about the machine that would separate you from her. He talked about it when he came here. And what he could do once he had her. He said he was going to use her to defy Heaven and Hell but he never said how!" 

Staved by Silas' hand, Cerberus drew back and Silas rose to his full height. It was almost as though the Collector was granting him mercy. 

"Come," Silas' voice had grown cold. "Your deception will be punished."  

The Collector reached down and grabbed the vampire's leg, shadowy tendrils curling hungrily around Victor's limbs. 

"Wha...? Wait! No!" Victor clawed at the ground, his fingernails scraping into the floor in protest as Silas dragged him from his shop, flanked by Cerberus. The gypsy’s frantic cries were met with inaction by the neighboring vendors of the Markets. They stayed back and away from the darkness that surrounded Silas as he walked back down the hall. Towards the stairs and to the elevators, his shadows flooded the hall.

Following close behind, Yona was texting something on her phone. No one would interfere. There were crowds gathering in the central square of the second floor. Whispers of Faust's plan set in motion. They followed Silas while keeping at a distance. Word of the Collector coming for Victor had traveled far and fast. Others were coming from all levels of the Dark Markets, eager to catch a glimpse for themselves of what was to become of the Vampire. 

There was a wave of whispers that followed the pair. When eyes fell to Yona, more Others that lined the halls bowed to her. Those that idolized the Dæmon race. 

She followed Silas with a look of amusement as the entire incident unfolded. 

In a violent swing from his grip, Silas threw Victor like a ragged doll across the floor between a parting crowd. The Collector followed close behind, ready to grab him again. His gaze was drilling into the gypsy. Scrambling to his feet to get away, the back of his neck was again caught by Silas' talons while the crowd around them did nothing. Any plea Victor made for help was ignored. They knew Silas as the Collector chained to a ghost. Now there were no chains nor was there a ghost. Only a raging Collector and a very angry hellhound that wanted only Victor. 

Snapping a quick photo, Yona returned to texting. Casually glancing up from the screen every now and again to make sure she trailed close behind Silas. 

"Let me go! Silas, please! We can talk-"

"There is nothing that can be said now." Silas replied. By now Victor's fingertips were bleeding. His nails torn. To be in the grasp of a Soul Collector meant only one thing.  

Up to the first floor, Silas continued to pull the vampire towards the elevator now in view. 

"No!" Victor screamed, the parting crowd watching the situation unfold. Pressing the button for the lift to take them back to the city's surface. To the day and sunlight. The security at the door appeared unsure of what step to take. Keeping away from Silas and Cerberus but seeing Victor, it was clear the Collector and his canine companion wanted only the Gypsy and no one else. If they let him be, Silas would do so without anyone else involved. The Collector's new power far exceeded any Other in the Dark Markets and they knew it. Leave Silas to fulfill any of Hell's wishes undisturbed. 

Victor would face the consequences of his lies. 

Security stepped back, allowing Silas to pass. In the moments it took for the elevator to arrive Yona remained nonchalantly waiting as she would for any elevator. She finished texting and placed her phone back in her dress jacket pocket. Taking out a compact from another, she flipped it open to quickly check her lipstick and complexion for any blemish to her perfect makeup as Victor struggled and screamed beside her. A lock of hair out of place was quick to be put back in line.  

The elevator doors came open.

Silas stepped in first alongside the elevator operator, his shadow seeping inward to fill the lift, pulling Victor in with him and pinning him against its inner wall. And like nothing had happened, Yona gave an acknowledging nod to security as she got into the elevator alongside Cerberus, turning around and facing outward as the doors closed, shutting out Victor's screams from the onlookers of the Markets. 

"Please, please, please, let me go, I'll do anything!" Victor whimpered in a half cry, held against the elevator wall by Silas’ unimaginable force. He was grasping at the talons again at his throat, although it made little difference against Silas strength. 

Silas was still, looking ahead without waver while the rusted elevator screeched upwards. Looking at Silas' seething expression and then to his suit as he held Victor against the wall, Yona casually brushed the dust from his sleeve. 

When it reached the ground floor, the elevator door rolled open slowly to the long dark hallway that led to the outside alley. The only thing left now between them and daylight was a heavy iron door. 

Yona took a pair of small sunglasses hiding in her upper breast pocket. Her pockets held limitless items while looking like she held nothing at all. Putting the dark glasses on her eyes, she readied for what was to come. 

Dæmons hated the sun but could very much tolerate it. Vampires could not. 

"You're running out of time." Silas' cold voice chimed. "Tell me everything."

Cerberus trotted next to Silas, happily anticipating having a chance to tear Victor to pieces of meat. Victor rarely came to the surface from his hole in the ground and now Silas was about to pull him out into the sun. 

"Silas!" Victor screamed when the Collector reached the end of the hall and pushed him up against the metal of the door to the outside. Grabbing the handle, Silas twisted it and pulled. 

A crack of light split the dark hall. 

"No!" Victor wailed. 

Just as his Sky had no choice in what Faust did despite her pleas. The Collector would show no mercy. 

Silas swung the door open and kicked the vampire out into the light. Thrown forward, Victor's world was set on fire. His skin burned and wafts of smoke instantly rose from any part of him exposed to the sun. The vampire screamed, trying to get back through the doorway blocked by the Collector. In panic, Victor looked for a way out but there was almost no shadow to be had in the midday sun of the alley. 

Desperate, the vampire gypsy looked back at Silas. His skin began to burn before blistering and popping with open sores.

"He is going to cross back!" Victor conceded, falling to his knees in defeat. Silas again grabbed Victor by his neck and pulled him back into the shadow of the hall beyond the door. 

"What did you say?" Yona demanded to know if she heard right. Victor was left heaving for air, clinging to Silas's wrist. His knees were weak.

"He is going to cross back," Victor repeated, panting. "and that's not a rumor because I heard it directly from him." 

Crossing back to the world of Mortals. A near-impossible feat as it meant crossing the line between the planes. Something only done in the creation of life and death. No one in that World had the ability but the Authority or the Devil. That is, God, the Devil and one other.

"Silas, you know ghosts are the only creatures in this world that can freely perform such a feat. Faust is going to use Sky to create some kind of door back and he'll destroy anyone who does not bow before him as he does so. He's going to appear soon to all his waiting disciples. Very soon. Even the non-believers wish to see for themselves the dawning of a new era." Victor said, a mocking smirk appearing across his face at the end of his words.

Silas dropped Victor from his grasp, turning quickly to leave. With a look to Cerberus, the Collector gave the Hellhound the nod he had been waiting for. With Yona at his side, Silas left the dark hall through the door to the outside. Cerberus' vicious snarls of attack and Victor's ensuing screams left in their wake.