EMERALD SQUARE

Jessica Reyes strolls out the Sasha Fierce hair salon, a slight spring in her step, despite the fact that she'd just recently been fired from her job at Hanley Enterprises. The deep funk she'd been in was enough for her mother to call up her friend Sasha and see if she could fit in Jessica for an emergency hair appointment.

But now, as she stops out into the harsh light of the day, she feels defeated once again. Sighing and realizing that not even a frappucino from Starbucks would get her excited again — not when she needs to support her son Phillip and her mother, who barely makes minimum wage.

"Life sucks," Jessica mutters, checking her cell phone.

Still no response from Darren. Which means he hasn't been able to locate Alec, so on top of everything, she's still married to him. She knows that she'll forever be...well, not burdened because she loves Phillip, but she will always be reminded of her one night with Alec. Her one terrible mistake. But she can at least get past the last three years of an awful marriage.

As she walks toward Starbucks anyway, she finds that she won't be needing her frappucino after all when a plastic cup sails through the air, landing on the edge of a nearby trash can. The cup bursts open, spilling the last drops of a frappucino on Jessica's clothing and ruining her hair.

"Dammit!" Jessica cries, attempting to mop the frappucino from her hair while ignoring the stares and snickers of passing patrons.

"I'm sorry about that!"

Jessica turns to see an attractive Asian man approaching her, a wide grin on his face.

"It's not funny," she snaps.

"It kind of is," he says, still smiling. "Probably not for you. Um...I'm sorry about that. Can I...buy you some new hair?"

"This is my hair," Jessica snaps.

"Oh!" He frowns this time. "I'm really sorry. My name is Kane...I can give you my number if you want me to pick up the dry cleaning bill or something."

"Oh, Kane?" Jessica says. "How about I give you mine? Five, five, five, go to hell."

Kane smirks, picking up the fallen coffee cup. "So...is that area code 312?"



POLOKWANE, SOUTH AFRICA
HUMAN RESCUERS COMPOUND

Julia Mitchell stares down at Sara Reynolds' unconscious body, then turns to Akilah Moore and frowns. "Well, that's no good. I guess we need to stick Sara where we stuck Matt. And you two need to stop knocking people out."

"Sorry," Akilah says softly.

"No, it's good," Chris Server says, smiling with his fangs baring. "Embrace the darkness. Thrive on the energy emanating from dark continent."

"Dark continent?" Julia says. "Isn't that racist?"

"I'm black," Chris says. "Also, I'm dead. Two minorities."

Julia frowns. "There's a lot of dead people."

"Yeah...and speaking of..." Chris says, staring at Sara's bare neck. "Fuck this waiting crap."

He dives onto the ground, sinking his fangs into Sara's neck. Julia stands exasperated at Chris' consistent insolence, while Akilah only stares and watches as her friend is drained of her blood...her expression never changing to happiness or disgust.

She remains coldly blank.

EMERALD SQUARE

Jessica tries walking away from Kane, but he follows behind. "Leave me alone."

"You're not gonna let me make it up to you?" Kane says.

"No," Jessica says. "Sorry, but if this was some sort of attempt to ask me out...I'm not interested."

Kane laughs. "That's ridiculous."

"I'm sorry for suggesting it then," Jessica says, continuing on her way.

"No, I meant it's ridiculous that you're not interested in me!" Kane calls after her.

Rolling her eyes, Jessica turns back around. "Know what? You don't want to keep pursuing this. I have a three year old kid at home. A home I still share with my mother. I'm not enrolled in college. I'm married and on the verge of a divorce, even though given my track record, I'll probably end up sleeping with my ex again. And on top of all that, I just got fired."

Kane nods. "Well...you know. Nobody's perfect."

"Goodbye."

"Maybe I can help you out," Kane says. "I'm working at this restaurant, Mata Hari's? I'm pretty tight with the boss, maybe I could get you a job?"

Jessica reluctantly moves closer to Kane. "Really?"

"Really," Kane says. "And I won't even make you go out with me."

"Oh, thanks for small favors."

"If only because once you get to know me, you'll want to go out with me. And I'll probably be really, really busy."



HANLEY HOME

"You okay?" Eric Hanley says, careful to catch Blake Thomas as he stumbles ascending the steps in the foyer.

Blake laughs, turning around to kiss Eric and filling his date's mouth with the taste of vodka and lemonade . "I've had a little bit too much!"

"Well, at least we were able to find your phone," Eric says. "This is the last time we go to a happy hour in the middle of the afternoon."

"I'm a college student," Blake insists. "I can drink whenever the hell I want."

"Let's just make sure you don't throw up whenever you don't want."

"I think I need a little disco nap," Blake says, finally reaching the top of the landing. As they ascend the steps, they find themselves outside Vince's bedroom.

Blake stands silent for a moment, memories of sleeping with Vince flooding back to him. He shakes off the thoughts and pulls Eric closer to him, passionately rubbing their bodies together. "Let's have sex."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm tired of just fooling around," Blake insists, nuzzling Eric's neck. "I want to have sex. Twice. Three times. However many times we can before it's time to go out."

Eric grins. "Sounds good to me."

He begins to lead the way to his bedroom, but Blake stops him. "No. I want to do it in there," Blake says, pointing at Vince's room. "That'll really piss him off."

Not wanting to know why Blake is angry at Vince, and also not really caring, Eric leaps at the suggestion and allows Blake to take him wherever he wants. "Sounds even better."



EMERALD HEART

Li sits on the edge of her bed, removing her clothes slowly. She stares at herself in the mirror, still sickened from her continuous sex with Aaron. She's done a lot of things for money in her life, but pretending that she is Dr. Li's widow while also allowing Aaron to constantly degrade her sexually...it makes her violently ill.

As she softly rubs the bruises on her skin, the door flies open and Kane walks in, whistling. He looks at her and grimaces. "Another round with Aaron Maddock, mother?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Rebecca snaps. "Why are you so damn chipper?"

"Because I finally have the answer to all of our problems," Kane says eagerly. "You're cozying up to Aaron, who may or may not end up with his hands on Melissa Bale's fortune."

"That's what we need to keep from happening. It's what Kyle hired me to do."

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Kane says. "But where does that leave us?"

"Employed."

Kane rolls his eyes. "I just had an interesting encounter with the woman who gave birth an heir of the Bale fortune. Robert Bale. You know, the man who is also in control of his wife Melissa's money."

"Kane, that's a bad idea."

"No it's not, mom," Kane insists. "It's getting what we want out of this dead end town. And getting the fuck out of a motel room so we can stop pretending like we're loaded and actually be loaded."

"So what? Get this girl to hand over all her money? Marry her?" Rebecca demands. "Don't be an idiot. This isn't some caper film. And besides, I don't want you sleeping with her."

"Well, I don't like you sleeping with Aaron," Kane says, sitting next to her. "It grosses me out, mother."

"It grosses me out too, son," Rebecca says.

Kane runs his fingers along Rebecca's bare skin, then he licks his tongue at her neck. "So stop doing it."

"I can't."

"Yes, you can..." he says, laying Rebecca down onto the bed and climbing atop her, removing his own clothes as they make rough, passionate love.



POLOKWANE, SOUTH AFRICA
HUMAN RESCUERS COMPOUND

Chris looks up from the floor, grinning at Akilah and Julia as blood trickles out his mouth and drips onto the floor. "Medium rare from the African heat...just how I like it."

"You're disgusting," Julia says. "Do you think Quentin is ready to expose Akilah to this?"

"I think that I can expose my Princess of the Night to whatever I want," Chris snaps. "And Quentin isn't here. He's an entire ocean way."

Chris focuses his gaze on Akilah, directing her to sit down on the bed. As she does, he waves for her to lay back. Chris takes a deep drink from Sara, finally finishing her off, before rising to his feet.

Blood still in his mouth, he kisses Akilah, allowing the blood to slide from his mouth into hers. Her eyes widen, almost shining brightly as the blood slides down the back of her throat.

"Quentin," Julia gasps.

Chris releases Akilah from their kiss and turns back to Julia. "Stop talking about him."

"No, do you see what you've done?" Julia demands, holding her hand close to her chest. "You've awakened his anger...you've taken things further than they need to be, and now he's...upset."

"And how the hell can you tell that?" Chris demands.

"Because I can feel him," Julia intones gravely. "I can feel him coming here..."