Though she wasn't a vampire, Bella was mortal, and she would have been stupid to ignore the consequences of having something plunged through her heart. With lightning fast reflexes, she grasped her assailant's forearms. Her face contorted in fighting rage as she tried to subdue him, but she wasn't strong enough. He threw her off and she fell, bringing her legs up to connect with his chest as he lunged toward her.

Max jumped across the overturned table, knocking Patrick off of Bella. He had him pinned to the floor with a foot against his throat before she got to her feet.

"Where's the Oracle?" Max dug the point of the stake into Patrick's chest.

The vampire laughed. "I could take you to her."

"Fuck you! Where is she?" Max pushed harder and saw blood well around the edges of the stake. "Where the fuck is she?"

"Max! You will kill him!" Bella's voice cut through the red haze of Max's anger. This asshole had tried to kill her.

He'd tried to push a stake through her heart. He'd put his hands on her in anger.

"Max, please, we will not get any information from him this way." Bella grasped his arm.

Relenting with the stake, just a little, Max twisted his foot. Patrick's face went purple.

"You're going to die. You can tell us where to find the Oracle and I'll send you out fast, or you can hold out. I could make this last all night. What do you say?"

Patrick grasped Max's ankle, trying to dislodge his foot, but when it didn't work, he settled for giving him the finger.

"Get the holy water," Max growled. He dropped to a knee on the vampire's chest and gripped his jaw, forcing his mouth open.

Patrick's loud, angry sounds of protest changed in pitch to frenzied panic when he saw the vial in Bella's fist.

"You gonna talk?" Max reached toward Bella for the vial, but something in the way she clutched it tighter warned him off.

It didn't translate to Patrick. "Fine, fine. I don't know exactly where. Her people came here the other night."

"Are they coming back?" Max struggled to keep a grip on the stake. Why were his hands suddenly sweaty?

"In two nights." The whites of Patrick's eyes were becoming a spiderweb of broken vessels. "They'll be here right at sundown. They're supposed to take me to the Oracle. She'll have what she wants by then. She thinks… she thinks I've got a message from the Soul Eater that can only be delivered to her."

"It is never the same ones twice," Bella interjected with a delicate sniff. "Many have been here since you arrived… two weeks ago."

"You're good," Patrick said, with a sneer to show he didn't appreciate it. "Another guy was here before me. One of the Soul Eater's own babies."

Max applied a little more weight to his knee. "What's the message?"